Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy was a tropical cyclone of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season that severely affected portions of the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States in late October, with lesser effects in the Southeastern and Midwestern states and eastern Canada. In diameter, it was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, with winds spanning 1,100 miles (1,800 km).[3][4] The eighteenth tropical cyclone and named storm and tenth hurricane of the season, Sandy is estimated in early calculations to have caused damage of at least $20 billion (2012 USD).[5] Preliminary estimates of losses that include business interruption surpass $50 billion (2012 USD), which, if confirmed, would make it the second-costliest Atlantic hurricane in history,[6] behind only Hurricane Katrina. Sandy was the 6th hurricane to hit the New England area in the history of the USA, after a 74 year hiatus following the 1938 New England Hurricane.

Sandy developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22. It became a tropical depression, quickly strengthened, and was upgraded to a tropical storm six hours later. Sandy moved slowly northward toward the Greater Antilles and gradually intensified. On October 24, Sandy was upgraded to a hurricane, shortly before making landfall in Jamaica. Farther north, Sandy re-entered water and made its second landfall in Cuba during the early morning of October 25 as a Category 2 hurricane. During the late evening of October 25, Sandy weakened to Category 1 strength; in the early hours of October 26, it headed north through the Bahamas.[7] Sandy began to show some characteristics of both tropical and extratropical cyclones on October 26.[8] Sandy briefly weakened to a tropical storm in the early morning hours of October 27, then restrengthened to a Category 1 hurricane later that morning. Just before 8 a.m. EDT on October 29, Sandy turned to the north-northwest and started to make its expected approach towards the U.S. coast. At 7 p.m. EDT that evening, Sandy was declared a post-tropical cyclone, while still maintaining Category 1 strength.[9] Sandy made its final landfall 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Atlantic City, New Jersey at about 8 p.m. EDT on October 29, the center of the storm missing New York City by almost 100 miles.[10]

In the United States, Hurricane Sandy affected at least 24 states, from Florida to Maine, with tropical storm force winds stretching far inland and mountain snows in West Virginia. The cyclone brought a destructive storm surge to New York City on the evening of October 29, flooding numerous streets, tunnels and subway lines in Lower Manhattan, Staten Island, Coney Island, the Rockaways and other areas of the city and cutting off electricity to parts of the city and its suburbs, especially Zone A areas near waterways which were issued evacuation orders.[11] Severe damage occurred in New Jersey, especially in the communities along the Jersey Shore.[12]