Trevor Taylor Geog 1700-002 Professor Simons November 25, 2013 Term Paper, Hurricane Sandy

I have decided to do my paper and research on hurricane Sandy. This natural disaster has always been very intriguing to me and I wanted to learn more about the details of this natural disaster. The first things that I want to focus on for this paper are the facts about hurricane Sandy to help understand why this was one of the major disasters of our time. Hurricane Sandy, also known as Super storm Sandy got its name because of the enormous size and as we learn more we will come to see that it wasnt just its size that made it so devastating. The Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA as most people know give us a brief overview of what took place as this horrifying and awful situation was about to take place. . They share with us that, On the evening of October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall in southern New Jersey, with impacts felt across more than a dozen states. The storm battered the East Coast, particularly the densely-populated New York and New Jersey coasts, with heavy rain, strong winds, and record storm surges. During Sandys immediate aftermath, more than 23,000 people sought refuge in temporary shelters, and more than 8.5 million customers lost power. The storm flooded numerous roads and tunnels, blocked transportation corridors, and deposited extensive debris along the coastline. When it comes to most costly hurricanes, Sandy ranks 2nd on the United States scale with an estimated amount of around $65 billion of damage. Those numbers are outrageous to think about and realize that that would affect such a large amount of people.

According to reports by the Huffington Post that state that Superstorm Sandy was the deadliest hurricane to hit the northeastern U.S. in 40 years and the second-costliest in the nation's history, according to a report released Tuesday. The storm's effects reached far and wide, according to the National Hurricane Center report. While Sandy visited devastation on the East Coast, principally New Jersey and New York, it created wind gusts as far west as Wisconsin and as far north as Canada and caused water levels to rise from Florida to Maine, the center found. (Porter) These facts help us to see just how devastating this disaster was especially since we know how devastating so many have been. They continue by giving us some numbers of other things that were affected. More than 650,000 U.S. homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm, and more than 8 million customers lost power, according to the report. (Porter) These are astonishing to think about especially when you stop to think that not only is there one person living in these homes. Most likely there are multiple people and families that had to leave which makes those numbers even more astonishing. When it comes to natural disasters, we learn that these occurrences are a part of life and they only become a disaster when we get in the way so naturally we are curious and concerned with the number of people that are either killed or affected in these disasters. The CDC or the Centers for Decease Control and Prevention give us an idea of just how many people were killed. A total of 117 deaths were reported on Red Cross mortality forms. Most deaths occurred New York (53 [45.3%]) and New Jersey (34 [29.1%]); the other deaths occurred in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, and Maryland. The deaths occurred during October 28November 29. Approximately half of the deaths (60 [51.3%]) occurred on the first 2 days of the storm's landfall, with a peak of 37 deaths on October 30, 2012. They also state some of the direct and indirect effects from Hurricane Sandy. They state,

Decedents ranged in age from 1 to 94 years (mean: 60 years, median: 65 years); 60.7% were male, and 53.8% were white. Of the 117 deaths, 67 (57.3%) were classified as directly related deaths, and 38 (32.5%) were indirectly related to the storm. Of the directly related deaths, the most common mechanism was drowning (40 [59.7%]), followed by trauma from being crushed, cut, or struck (19 [28.4%]). Poisoning was the most common indirectly related cause of death; of the 10 poisonings, nine were caused by carbon monoxide. Most directly related deaths occurred during the first few days of the storm, whereas indirectly related deaths continued from the day before the storm into the middle of November. There were also other places effected by Hurricane Sandy, specifically in the Caribbean. CNN is able to give us some numbers as to where and how many were affected. At least 67 deaths have been confirmed in the Caribbean, many of them in Haiti. Other areas affected include Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The weather channel was able to give a very descriptive timeline that helps us to see exactly the things that happened during the whole process before Hurricane Sandy actually became a hurricane. They tell us, More than a week before Sandy's development, numerical weather prediction models hinted that a tropical depression or storm may form in the western Caribbean, an area that we typically look for tropical development in late October. Though the details of what transpired did not match this model depiction, in hindsight, the long-range forecast models suggested to forecasters that a tropical cyclone could form and potentially pose a threat to at least part of the U.S. After days of monitoring the Caribbean, Sandy formed on Oct 22. On the morning of Oct. 22, 2012, Tropical Depression Eighteen formed in the southwestern Caribbean. Just six hours later, the depression became Tropical Storm Sandy.

Sandy moved slowly at first, but then began to creep northward while strengthening with time. Sandy began to lift northward on Oct. 23, 2012. The storm also strengthened through the day and top winds increased to 60 mph by late evening. Hurricane warnings were issued for Jamaica and eastern Cuba. Just as Sandy made its approach to Jamaica, it became a hurricane late in the morning on Oct. 24, 2012. Sandy then made landfall in Jamaica near Kingston at around 3 p.m. with top winds of 80 mph. Earlier in the morning, the first tropical storm watch was issued for the United States in southeast Florida. Portions of these watches were upgraded to warnings later in the afternoon.Just past midnight on Oct. 25, 2012, Sandy had become a Category 3 hurricane with top sustained winds of 115 mph. At 1:30 a.m. EDT, Sandy made landfall in eastern Cuba. A wind gust to 114 mph was reported in Santiago de Cuba about that time. As expected, the wind field of Sandy started to increase in size. Tropical-storm force winds extended up to 230 miles from the center by late evening, an increase from 140 miles earlier in the morning. However, the wind field continued to increase dramatically. Tropical-storm force winds extended out up to 415 miles from the center by late evening, up from 275 miles early in the morning. Preparations continued along the rest of the East Coast. First evacuation orders were issued in New Jersey, and states of emergency were declared in Delaware and Maryland. Reservoirs were lowered in New Jersey, and utilities such as embattled Connecticut Light and Power were on a state of high alert. Sandy weakened to a tropical storm on the morning of Oct. 27, 2012, however a Hurricane Hunter aircraft found that the system had become a hurricane once again around three hours later. States of emergency were declared as far north as Massachusetts and additional mandatory evacuations were ordered from parts of coastal North Carolina to coastal southern New England. On the evening of Oct. 27, the first reports of downed trees in the U.S. mainland

came in from Brunswick County, N.C., a sign to come as the official landfall was still about two days away. As Sandy inched closer on Oct. 28, coastal flooding became worse, particularly during high tide. Highway 12 in the Outer Banks of N.C. was closed between Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe. Roads and homes were flooded in Buckroe Beach, Va. That evening, parts of Atlantic City's boardwalk began to crumble due to the pounding waves. New York closed its mass transit system at 7 p.m. Oct. 28. Amazingly, water rises were also seen Sunday on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The first blizzard warnings were hoisted in the central Appalachians from western Maryland to far western Virginia late on the afternoon of Oct. 28. The first accumulating snow was measured near Wise, Va. a few hours later. By that evening, Sandy's tropical storm-force wind field had mushroomed to more than 900 miles in diameter. As computer model guidance insisted for several days prior, Hurricane Sandy made its turn back to northwest over the Atlantic on Oct. 29, 2012. Worse yet, Sandy's central pressure dropped, as feared, bottoming out at an extrapolated 939.4 millibars, intensifying the pressure gradient, and, thus, the winds produced on this destructive day. Coastal flooding affected the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastline with the first high tide in the morning. Most of Atlantic City, N.J. was already under water after this first high tide. The pier in Ocean City, Md. was damaged. Record storm surge flooding was recorded later in the day, including at Sandy Hook, N.J. and The Battery in New York City. While all of this was going on, the wintry side of Sandy was dumping heavy snow on the southern and central Appalachians. Blizzard conditions were observed in some areas. A state of emergency was declared by West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. Vehicles were stranded on Interstate 68 in whiteout conditions, forcing a shutdown from just north of Morgantown, W.V. to the Maryland state line.

Sandy became post-tropical early on the evening of Oct. 29 and made landfall in southern New Jersey a few hours later. The National Hurricane Center issued its final advisory later that evening. A storm surge up the Delaware River set a new record crest in Philadelphia just before sunrise, breaking a record from April 2011 and the infamous Great Appalachian Storm of 1950. At its peak, roughly 8.6 million customers were without power due to Sandy. Outages occurred as far away as Toronto, Atlanta, and the Detroit metro areas. The superstorm's wind field was destructive far from its center, as we mentioned earlier. A vehicle garage was heavily damaged at Indiana Dunes State Park. Thirty boats sank and twelve more drifted away from marinas along Cleveland's lakeshore. Meanwhile, an epic late October snowstorm continued to hammer the Appalachians. Charleston, W.V. picked up 2 inches of snow in one hour and a storm total of 10 inches, setting a new October record. Two to three feet piled up in the mountains of W.Va. and Md. Roofs collapsed due to the weight of the snow in Nicholas County, W.Va. east of Charleston. As we can tell by the timeline that the weather channel gave us, this was a pretty intense and fascinating natural disaster that affected many places and people. As far as my analysis of Hurricane Sandy, there are many things that I took from it that I was able to learn about in class. First off I want to talk about the forecasts and predictions of Hurricane Sandy. When it comes to forecasts and predictions, hurricanes are actually a natural disaster that can be forecasted pretty well and can be pretty close to being predicted. The reason being is that hurricanes generally take days to make land fall so we can track them and keep an eye on their progression as to whether or not they are just tropical storms or if they become hurricanes. In this case, they were able to keep up pretty well but were never able to determine whether or not it would be a category hurricane or just a tropical storm or depression when it

made land fall. As we can see in the timeline, there were multiple different warnings sent out to the public to make them aware of what was taking place and in this case I feel it was pretty successful. Overall your hope is that no one gets killed which would being the most success of warning the people but as compared to other natural disasters and with how large this one was, I would say we were pretty fortunate for only approximately 285 deaths. When it comes to a risk analysis, the thing with hurricanes is that they are fairly probable for the east coast. Because they are more common on the east coast, it allows those who live there to be more prepared knowing that one could muster up literally at any moment. Luckily there was a decent amount of time for those in the U.S. to be prepared if it made land fall. There have been a number of hurricanes in the past that were in a very similar area which should allow those who live on the east coast to do what it takes to be prepared. I also believe that it is important for the authorities do make sure that since these happen more frequent than we would like, they need to constantly focus on ways to warn the people properly and come up with new ways to make sure the death tolls of the disasters get kept to as little as possible. Some of the linkages connected to Hurricane Sandy were a lot of flooding from the storm surge that took place, blizzard conditions, higher temperatures in the ocean water which intensifies the hurricanes, extreme weather conditions and coastal erosion. The only real linkage that humans may have done to make this disaster as bad as it was is from putting CO2 in the air which causes the temperatures to get hotter. As we know, this can warm up ocean waters which intensifies the hurricane because that is what essentially fuels them to become so strong. Another big part in why this was as bad as it was is because of the increasing numbers in population but mostly because so many people love the benefits to living near a coast because of beaches and the view of the ocean. These disasters would be a problem if we hadnt gotten in the

way. Because there are so many people that live near coasts, it makes it more difficult to evacuate when the time is here. Also again, the daily activities that we do cause the ocean waters to become warmer which strengthens the hurricanes. When it comes to preparedness and mitigation, some disasters can be more difficult to be prepared for and come up with a completely successful plan. I believe the best way to prepare for a natural disaster like a hurricane, that best thing that can be done is to not live near coast lines. We simply get in the way knowing that these kinds of things happen fairly frequently. I do feel as though they did a pretty good job of warning the people of what was happening and gave them plenty of time to get out of the way. Unfortunately, even if no one is killed or injured, their lives are still affected because so many people go without power, clean water, and even lose their houses. In this case, the best thing to do is to live somewhere else. Avoid even the possibility. Lastly I want to talk about a few of the natural service functions that took place because of this disaster. To me, the service functions are not worth putting ourselves in the way of these kinds of disasters but people do it anyways. The main thing that was provided was precipitation. Even though it caused a lot of flooding, it was still a source of precipitation. It also cleared out a lot of diseased trees and plants. Overall, there are not too many service functions usually created from a hurricane. Overall, I have learned that Hurricane or Superstorm Sandy was an extremely devastating disaster because it affected so many people. Way too many people died and were injured and were without so much for an extended period of time. Hurricanes can be some of the most deadly and catastrophic occurrences when it comes to natural disasters. Luckily it wasnt as bad as it could have been had it made land fall as a category 5 hurricane but because of the size, it affected so many people and changed many lives forever.

Works Cited Porter, David. "Hurricane Sandy Was Second-Costliest In U.S. History, Report Shows." Huff Post 12 Feb. 2013: n. pag. Print. "Deaths Associated with Hurricane Sandy OctoberNovember 2012." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 24 May 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. "Hurricane Sandy: One Year Later | FEMA.gov." Hurricane Sandy: One Year Later | FEMA.gov. N.p., 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. "Superstorm Sandy's Victims." CNN. Cable News Network, 08 Nov. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. "Superstorm Sandy: A Daily Diary." The Weather Channel. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.