Hurricane Sandy, Mitigation And Recovery

Over the past decade, the world has experienced more natural disaster than people can count. Floods, mudslides, earthquakes, and raging fires are just a few of the events that have stripped people away from their families, homes, and possessions. The deadliest of these natural disasters are hurricanes. Extremely strong winds mixed with large waves can cause enormous damage, taking months, even years for towns to recover. Hurricane Katrina left millions of people without homes and families torn apart. Hurricane Sandy demolished the Jersey coast, leaving years of repair work behind. The most recent and powerful hurricane that surfaced is Hurricane Maria. A level five hurricane, Hurricane Maria ripped straight through the United States territory of Puerto Rico. The island lost power, supplies

In the United States, Hurricane Sandy affected at least 24 states, from Florida to Maine and west to Michigan and Wisconsin, with particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York. Its storm surge hit New York City on October 29, flooding streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city. It is having various political effects in the United States especially in terms of the general election scheduled for November 6, 2012. Hurricane Sandy developed at 1500 UTC on October 22, when the National Hurricane Center initiated advisories on Tropical Depression Eighteen to the south of Kingston, Jamaica. The system developed from an area of low pressure and had organized convection. It moved slowly at first due to a ridge to the north. Low wind shear and warm waters allowed for strengthening, and the system became Tropical Storm Sandy late on October 22. Early on October 24, an eye began developing, and it was moving steadily northward due to an approaching trough. Later that day, the NHC upgraded Sandy to hurricane status about 65 mi south of Kingston, Jamaica. At about 1900 UTC that day, Sandy made landfall near Kingston with winds of about 80 mph. Just offshore Cuba, Sandy rapidly intensified to winds of 110 mph, and at that intensity it made landfall just west of Santiago de Cuba at 0525 UTC on October 25.

Hurricane Sandy started off as a small storm, but quickly grew to be a large and powerful hurricane that caused major destruction to the Caribbean islands and East Coast of the United Sates of America. On October 19, 2012, a tropical depression formed in the Caribbean Sea by Venezuela. In a matter of five days, the tropical depression gained speed and became known as Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy caused high wind speeds, rain, and even snow in all East Coast states, especially New Jersey. On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Atlantic City, New Jersey with peak wind speeds measuring just over 220 miles per hour. At this point, people who thought that they would wait the storm out realized what a

All the states that are on the coast had to redo 80% of the roads. Over two million households in the state of New Jersey lost power in the storm, 346,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, but 8,100,000 homes lost power. The outages affected people in seven-teen states, as far west as Michigan. Four weeks after the storm 25,000,000,000 dollars was the estimated dollar value of the lost business activity , according to financial analysis firm IHS Global Insight. Estimates as of 2015 assessed damage to have been about 75,000,000,000 dollars ("Hurricane Sandy Fast Facts").

The State of New Jersey assisted the citizens of South Amboy by providing them with low interest loans in order for them to begin the recovery phase, also the Governor of New Jersey declared a State of Emergency in the area of disaster in order to obtain Federal funds to assist the community. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), came into the area within hours and provided the members of the community with money in order to assist them with the recovery phase and cover some of the losses the citizens encountered after super storm sandy struck the city of South

Natural disaster currently has become a large part of US economy, from tornadoes, fire, floods and hurricanes. These natural disasters have lead to death of people but also a billion dollar damage to several cities or states. According to National center of Environmental Information, in 2015 there were at least ten weather disasters that lead to property damages exceeding one billion dollar across United States. The natural disasters are found in many ways, the one most famous is Hurricane Katrina and another Hurricane Sandy. These two hurricanes are Atlantic hurricanes, Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern States and Hurricane Sandy hit near Atlantic City affecting many eastern States. Although the two hurricanes have occurred in separate years, yet they have caused a lot of damage in large cities leaving thousands of people without home. Furthermore due to these natural disasters has questioned the government how to prepare for natural disaster in near future. The hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy are both consider Natural disaster that has lead to heavy damages but one has more devastating effect than the other.

The state of New York was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, particularly its suburbs, Long Island, and New York City. The devastation impacted New York City's Subway system, road tunnels, and many communities across the area. Furthermore, the New York Stock Exchange closed for two days, an entire hospital complex had to be evacuated as well as the surrounding neighborhood, and multiple fires destroyed over 100 homes in Queens. Thus, in the end, 53 people lost their lives due to Sandy. The economic impact accrued damage to thousands of homes and an estimate of 250,000 vehicles across New York. The city faced $19 billion in damage, with $32.8 billion required for restoration across the state of New York. (City of New York)

There were many names given to the deadly storm such as "Frankenstorm", "Blizzacane" and "Snor-eastercane"(Sharp, 2012). The official name given to the storm by the National Hurricane Center was "Post Tropical Cyclone Sandy." Sandy was only the second biggest storm to ever hit the Atlantic coast but it set many other records along the way. One record the storm broke was “The surge level at Battery Park topped 13.88 feet at 9:24 p.m. Monday, surpassing the 10.02 feet record water level set by Hurricane Donna in 1960.” (Sharp, 2012). The storm hit just in time to interrupt the presidential Campaign as President Barack Obama joined New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to survey the damage and declare a state of emergency for New Jersey and New York to allow Federal money to assist in recovery efforts. Another candidate running for president “Mitt Romney canceled political rallies on Oct. 29 and 30, turning one campaign appearance into a "storm relief" event. He gave brief non-political remarks and spent less than an hour collecting hurricane relief donations and loading them into a truck” (Sharp, 2012). After Hurricane Sandy there was a much different problem that FEMA faced then what they did with Hurricane Katrina. This issue was public response to communication. Many residents that were in the mandatory evacuation

Even though FEMA has made progress, there is additional work needed in several areas. The response of the storm exposed challenges in how FEMA coordinated Federal agencies, State officials, and preparing and deploying it staff. For example, “difficulties with issuing mission assignment in a timely manner, implementation of incident management structures, and meeting the needs of survivors during the response phase” are some of the challenges that FEMA’s Sandy after action report identified. There were also challenges with delivering disaster relief and services to the seniors and individuals with disabilities trapped in public housing (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2013). The report revealed that FEMA had not worked with other federal

Sandy wiped out at least 125 people in the United States that comprises of 60 in New York, 48 of them in New York City, 34 in New Jersey and 16 in Pennsylvania. The storm dropped heavy snow in West Virginia killing seven people. Sandy killed 71 people in the Caribbean, including 54 in Haiti. Sandy was responsible for creating $62 billion damage and other disasters in the U.S., the huge part of it in New York and New Jersey. It is the second storm in U.S. history for creating financial crisis, after 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which caused $128 billion in damage in inflation-adjusted dollars. Sandy created at least $315 million of destruction in the Caribbean. Sandy ruined or demolished homes and businesses, more than 72,000 in New Jersey alone. In Cuba, the number of blemished homes has been approximated at 130,000 to 200,000.

On August 29, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Winds of more than 125 miles per hour, coupled with storm surges reaching up to 34 feet, devastated several coastal communities. These communities were “Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula, and Pass Christian in Mississippi; and Bayou La Batre, Dauphin Island, and Mobile in Alabama (Funk and Wagnalls)”. The storm destroyed a amount numerous homes, businesses, and roads and bridges. “In New Orleans, winds of up to 100 miles per hour damaged many buildings (Funk and Wagnalls)”. But rapidly increasing water levels brought the most destruction. A storm surge pushed water over the New Orleans levee system. The city’s low level neighborhoods became submerged within minute of the levees

Since Hurricane Sandy there are a few preventative steps being taken to try to avoid damage from a flood like the one Sandy gave Staten Island. One preventative thing being done is in New Dorp Beach there are now sand dunes to try and stop water from rushing in. The photo below shows the dunes on the right. These sand dunes are built with tarp and sand packed in the inside and sand covering the top and sides. Also in many spots the dunes are covered in beach grass to anchor the sand. Another way Staten Island is trying to prevent damage from a flood again is raising houses on to piers in the hopes that the flood will never touch the actual house.

Hurricane Sandy hit the United States at about 8 p.m. on October 29, 2012, near Atlantic

According to John Manuel, Sandy was accountable for an estimate of 234 deaths in 8 countries. The almost half the deaths, around 97, were reported around the New York metropolitan area. During the storm, buses and power were down, which made it almost impossible to continue going on after Sandy hit. The power was out for around 8.5 million days and even weeks after Sandy hit. Unfortunately, with the damage that Sandy has done on top of the loss of power, technology was failing. Not only were televisions and phones down, but heating systems and life support in hospitals were failing also. (Manuel, 2013). Sandy caused about an estimate of 346,000 homes damaged and cost about $65 billion in damages. In NYC alone, the cost was $19 billion and in New Jersey cost as around $30 billion in damages (Trento and Allen,

No one believed the storm would be as atrocious as it was, after all, growing up near the shore when someone says hurricane you think of light rain and maybe some wind. This time it was different, Sandy was a perfect storm, all arrows pointed to destruction and that is exactly what happened. During this storm many people were critically injured, lost their homes becoming impoverished, and even lost their lives. Amongst the miles and miles of our country 's eastern coastline, devastation hit. Places like Ortley Beach, which was located on the coast in central New Jersey, were often referred to as “ground zero” because after Sandy was done, there was little remnants of it. This third degree