The Devastating Effects Of Hurricane Sandy

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

Recently and historically hurricanes have caused catastrophic amounts of damage to individuals, property, and society as a whole. Given this immense amount of destruction caused by hurricanes, a president’s response to these storms is not only extraordinarily significant but necessary for society to recover from the damage. Not only does the president need to provide aid and support to the victims affected directly by these hurricanes, but also unite America in these times of crisis. A president’s ability to deal with these dire situations is crucial to their success and a representation of their leadership skills. Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Sandy were both similar storms that resulted in contrasting results. Two deadly storms with two very different responses: one from Obama and the other from Trump. President Obama’s response to Hurricane Sandy was swift and respectful, while Trump’s to Maria was sluggish and demeaning to the people of Puerto Rico, demonstrating the contrast between Obama’s heart and intellect and Trump’s idiocy and heartlessness.

Hurricane Sandy was a tropical cyclone that devastated portions of the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States in late October 2012. The eighteenth named storm and tenth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, as measured by diameter, with winds spanning 1,100 miles. Sandy is estimated in early calculations to have caused damage of at least $20 billion. Preliminary estimates of losses that include business interruption surpass $50 billion, which, if confirmed, would make it the second-costliest Atlantic hurricane in history, behind only Hurricane Katrina.

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

Hurricane Katrina was the storm of the century. Hurricane Sandy earned the nickname Super storm Sandy. If anyone had any doubts as to what Mother Nature is capable of, these storms are perfect examples of the fury she can dish out here on planet Earth. The sheer amount of energy those storms had is almost incomprehensible. Katrina had sustained winds of 174 mph and wave heights of over 40 feet in some places. (Knabb) Sandy had winds of 115 mph and dumped over 10 inches of rain (Blake). By all measures, they were both extremely powerful weather systems capable of taking lives.

“When communities are rebuilt, they must be even better and stronger than before the storm,” (“Bush”). This is what former president George W. Bush said during his speech in New Orleans concerning the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was a massive natural disaster that consisted of high powered winds and immense amounts of water. The hurricane was initially a category 3, but gradually rose to the classification of a category 5 storm, which is the largest storm there is (“Hurricane Irene”). In fact, there were accounts of winds recorded at about 127 miles per hour in the Gulf areas such as Grand Isle, Louisiana, and near the Mississippi River (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics”). All of these factors are made

In April 2012, the United States of America experienced Sandy, known as one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in the American history. It is estimated that the hurricane caused damage of about $75 million. Besides numerous causalities along its path, the deadly hurricane left many cities without electricity, communication system, infrastructure and even shelter in many cases. Within the United States, New Jersey and New, both major socio-economic hubs and highly populated regions, remained the worst hit area of the storm.

Hurricane Sandy destroyed homes by separating families and tearing down their homes. After Hurricane Sandy happened when families came back home from wherever they went when the hurricane occurred some of them maybe most of them came home to almost nothing. Half of the towns and almost half of buildings was ruined with water damage and had to be rebuilt (Dunbar).

Nor’easters are the most common type of coastal storm that affects Connecticut. This type of coastal storm has wind speeds and surges that are lower than from hurricanes, however, they can still inflict a substantial amount of damage because they extend over broader areas and last over numerous tidal cycles. This type of coastal storm is most rampant between December and March (Gornitz et al., 2004). Two recent nor’easters that have hit Connecticut took place between October 31–November 1 of 1991 and December 11–12, 1992, and Milford was among the hardest-hit communities (floodwaters 10 to 12 feet above normal) (Gornitz et al., 2004). The nor’easter storms also caused major coastal flooding, disrupted transportation, and power outages. On the other hand, hurricanes are less frequent than nor’easters coastal storms in Connecticut and form over warm water. In recent years, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 cost Connecticut almost $400 million in damages (Frumhoff et al., 2007). Likewise, many people were unable to access electricity from CT energy suppliers and the hurricane also affected the people from the lower and middle-class communities. Most of the agricultural features in Connecticut were negatively impacted, including shellfish production. Infrastructure items such as dams and levees, transportation, and facilities and buildings were also damaged. The

Hurricane Sandy made a devastating landfall along the coast of New Jersey (McCallum, Wicklein, Reiser, Busciolano, Morrison, Verdi, Painter & Frantz, 2012). However, the origin of the hurricane was quite removed from that location. The core instigation of Hurricane Sandy originated off of the west coast of Africa in the southwestern Caribbean Sea. It started off rather weak, a category one on the Saffir-Simpson’s scale. The storm became a stronger category three as it moved towards the island of Cuba, and then weakened to a category one again as it traveled north through the Bahamas. On the journey from the Bahamas to the

As the Assistant Administrator of National Preparedness with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A.) when Super Storm Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, in New Jersey it brought with it storm surges of more than 11 feet, killing more than 100 people (including 43 in New York of which 34 occurred in Queens and Staten Island), destroying or damaging thousands of homes, and leaving more than 8 million people without power.

The weather conditions played a huge part in how devastating the hurricane was. There was winds more than 150 MPH, it blew down trees, threw fences and cars, swept people off their feet, devastated houses and buildings, the wind was truly destructive. Also there was huge waves ranging anywhere from 30 to 50 feet in height! They crashed over houses and dragged them into the ocean, the swept the land clean. There was floods, some 12-17 feet deep! In total it rained hard for 4 days straight. In addition the hurricane was 500 miles wide! The eye of the storm lasted 20 minutes and was 50 miles in diameter. While it wreaked havoc on RI it also reached out to NH and VT with its

Like Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy is another natural disaster that is also considered a social disaster. This storm, which struck the northeast coast of the United States in late October of 2012, uncovered some pressing societal issues in the United States.

On August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana as a category three storm and brought with it some of the most catastrophic effects that any hurricane has ever left behind. Twenty foot surges of flood water washed into New Orleans after the levees broke, and ended up flooding over 80% of the city. It was now in the hands of the United States government to help the millions of displaced Americans find proper shelter, food, water, and services that were required for their recovery.

On May 12, 2008, in the Sichuan Province in China, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9