One year ago Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey and New York City. During the afternoon of October 29, 2012, Sandy produced high winds and drenching rains from Washington, D.C. northward. It toppled trees and power lines, and cut electrical power for millions.
Sandy’s center came ashore near Atlantic City, New Jersey at 8:00 p.m. No longer considered a hurricane, the “post-tropical nor’easter’s” path from the southeast, however, made its storm surge much worse for New Jersey and New York City. A hurricane’s strongest winds and highest storm surge comes from the front and right of its circulation: the power of the storm’s strongest winds combines with its forward motion. New York Harbor received this part of Sandy’s impact.
The full moon added about a foot to the surge; Sandy also arrived at high tide. Meteorologist Tim Morrin of the National Weather Service’s office in New York, told National Geographic News that the surge — nearly 14 feet — set a new record for a storm surge in the harbor.
The surge overflowed the seawall at The Battery in Lower Manhattan and flooded parts of the city’s subway system. It also flooded the Hugh Carey Tunnel, which links Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The storm’s huge size meant that its winds, rains and flooding pounded New Jersey and New York throughout the night–and through three cycles of high and low tides.
Staten Island also suffered. The Seattle Times later reported that Oakwood Beach, Midland Beach, South Beach and Tottenville — which lost many residents who were police and firefighters during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 — were among the hardest-hit communities. The storm eventually affected more than 50 million people on the Eastern Seaboard.
Have you ever survived a similar natural catastrophe? How did you cope? What lesson(s) did you learn? What lesson(s) did Job learn from his disasters?
Source:http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/02/a-timeline-of-hurricane-sandys-path-of-destruction/ Blog reproduced information in large part from this article.
