Tara Christopher
Geog 1700
Here in Utah, I think we are lucky that we haven’t had many major disasters. On the east coast,
it seems every year there is at least one hurricane, a tropical storm or a tropical depression. I
couldn’t image how it would be to evacuate your home not knowing if it will be there when you
come back. What property do you save, what do you leave? How do you decide what has the
most sentimental value to you? Watching flooding, and fires destroy your city, your street, your
home, power outages which force the evacuations of hospitals, the fear of your patients and staff
that could not leave would have to leave you feeling helpless. How do you leave everything you
know and love, and what are the consequences if you do not evacuate the city or state?
This nightmare became reality for many people in the United States. The following is a timeline
of Hurricane Sandy’s path of destruction taken from National Geographic:
It started on October 22, 2012 when a tropical depression was forming in the Southern
Caribbean Sea, this depression strengthened quickly forming Tropical Storm Sandy.
On October 24, Sandy has reached Category 1 hurricane status. It now has winds up to 80 mph
and is crossing Jamaica. Over 20 inches of rain landed on Hispaniola, and more than 50 people
died in flooding and mudslides in Haiti because of it.
October 26, Sandy is getting stronger as it moves to Santiago de Cuba with winds at 110 mph
now; this is only one mph below a Category 3 hurricane.
October 27, Sandy leaves the Bahamas and heads towards Florida. Estimates of deaths in the
Caribbean are 70+ people. This hurricane weakened back into a tropical depression, but became
a Category 1 hurricane again.
October 28, Sandy starts the path up the United States
east coast. It hasn’t made land fall yet, but is creating
waves through Georgia and the Carolinas. This is
where meteorologist start warning this storm may turn
into a super storm for many reasons. One of these reasons is the fact of a full moon which has
made the tides higher. Another reason for this becoming a super storm is this hurricane met up
with two other storms; one from the west coast that was heading east, another from Canada that
was heading south. Merging with the cold fronts made the storm more powerful. In 1991, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a “perfect storm”, when hurricane
Grace combined with a high pressure and a cold front, but it never made landfall.
(www.cnn.com)
October 29, the storm catches a replica ship, the HMS Bounty, in its path. 14 of the 16 crew
members on board were able to escape the ship and the storm where the Coast Guard was able to
save them. One of the two missing men’s bodies was found, the captain has not been found.
The storm made its way to New York, New Jersey and
Washington D.C. The rain and the winds caused power
outages. When the storm made it to the New York--New Jersey
area, it was no longer a hurricane, it is now a nor’easter. Due to
the full moons effect on the tides, the waves were 14 feet above
normal. Because of these waves, parts of Manhattan flooded and some of the subway systems
were also flooded.
October 30, Sandy starts to weaken as it makes its way toward Pennsylvania.
October 31, NOAA reported that Sandy has killed more than 70 people in the Caribbean, and at
least 50 people in the United States. It is also estimated that Sandy has caused at least $20
billion in damages.
The previous time line illustrates a living nightmare. In New York City the population depends
on mass transit systems; subways, taxis, etc. After
this storm, the subway system was flooded and not
able to be used. A Metropolitan Transportation
Authority said, “The subway system is 108 years
old, and has never faced a disaster like this.” To help commuters get around, free bus service
was provided, and taxi drivers were permitted to pick additional passengers, even if there was
someone else in their cab.
Sharing taxis was a good idea also because of the gasoline shortages. New York and New Jersey
were rationing gasoline depending on
whether the license plate ended with
an odd or even number. This was the
first time there were gas lines since
the 1970 gas embargo which affected the entire nation. Because of the gas shortages caused by
the storm, there was a lot of anger among the customers and lines were being monitored by
police officers in order to keep the peace.
There were more than 15,000 flights that were cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy according
to www.FlightAware.com. Not all of the airports in the area were flooded, but there was debris
on the runways making them impossible to be utilized. Because of this, numerous people were
stranded not only in the cities which were affected by Sandy, but others worldwide that were
trying to fly into these cities.
The power was out because of the rain and winds. The powerful winds caused trees to uproot
and fall onto power lines. This resulted in
more than 1.9 million customers without
power in New York State. Most of these,
1.6 million, were in Long Island and New
York City. Utilities were restored to
approximately 95 percent of the customers
within 13 days after the storm hit. People
were thankful for this. Without electricity, there isn’t heat, or refrigerators to keep food fresh.
There is a fire hazard associated with using candles to light the night. The tall buildings in New
York made it hard for some people (elderly and handicapped) to get to their apartments without a
servicing elevator. Because of the time of year and it being cold weather, many people were
becoming angry that power wasn’t being restored fast enough. It was estimated that the
combined power outages where Sandy hit up the east coast affected 2.7 million residential and
commercial customers.
The New York Stock Exchange was closed down on Monday and reopened on Wednesday
running on backup generators. The last time the exchange was closed for weather was in 1888.
(www.wgrz.com)
The floods affected New York City in
various degrees. In some areas, the
subways were flooded, in other areas, the
subways weren’t flooded. The World
Trade Center was flooded with between 15
and 30 feet of water when the surging seas
rushed down West Street. The contractors were concerned about equipment and electrical
systems being damaged. (http://www.crainesnewyork.com)
The final estimate on the death toll from this storm is set at 113 in the United States and 1 in
Canada. The state by state totals are:
Connecticut
14 deaths
North Carolina
2 deaths
Maryland
11 deaths
Ohio
2 deaths
New Hampshire
1 death
Pennsylvania
14 deaths
New Jersey
24 deaths
Virginia
2 deaths
New York
48 deaths
West Virginia
7 deaths
Different disasters happen in different parts of the country. On the east coast they get the hurricanes
and tropical storms, the mid-section of the country is prone to tornadoes and in the west, we have
earthquakes. The warning systems for select disasters are improving, even though this storm could be
seen and tracked from the beginning, ultimately the final damage could not be predicted. Even with the
warnings people had that this storm was coming, a lot were still not prepared. Many people were going
to the stores and finding them cleaned out of supplies. During this storm a lot of people that were told
to evacuate stayed in their homes and were later having to be rescued. I think a lot of us tend to be
optimistic and don’t think things can be as bad as they can be. In the past in New Jersey, beach projects
suggested building up the dunes on the beaches. This met with a lot of opposition because property
owners felt it would damage the ocean views and property values.
Now a lot of those homes no longer exist. There were reports of
water raising five feet within 45 minutes, which just shows how
fast these storms can move through. There were homes swept off
their foundations, and amusement park rides damaged. Most people will encounter some sort of
natural disaster in their lifetime, the bottom line is that Mother Nature is in charge—and whatever we
do, we as human being don’t have the power to stop any of this from happened.
REFERENCES
National Geographic http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/02/a-timeline-of-hurricanesandys-path-of-destruction/
LA Times http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-hurricane-sandy-deaths
New York Observer http://observer.com/2012/11/after-massive-flooding-work-resumes-on-worldtrade-center-after-days-rather-than-weeks/#slide2
ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/US/transportation-york-city-open/story?id=17600758
Huff Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/09/new-york-gas-shortage-photos_n_2102722.html