1.1 Overview
Hurricane Sandy, also commonly referred to as Superstorm Sandy, is known as the most devastating, destructive, and deadliest hurricane that hit the Atlantic in 2012. The storm emerged in late October of that year. In terms of fatalities, over 286 people were killed in seven different countries. 117 were killed in the US and an additional 69 were killed in other countries throughout the world. [2] In terms of costly damage, this natural disaster was the second most expensive hurricane in US History. [3] Hurricane Sandy was a Category 3 storm at its peak when it had first hit Cuba. Eventually, Sandy had turned into a Category 2 storm once it had moved up and hit off the coast of the Northeastern US. The storm was named the largest Atlantic hurricane that was ever recorded, with measurements that included winds reaching an upwards of 1,100 miles per hour. [3]
Contents
1.1
Overview
1.2
Development
1.3
Damaged Locations
1.4
References
1.2 Development
On October 22nd, Hurricane Sandy had developed from a small tropical wave in the western part of the Caribbean Sea and grew increasingly stronger, forming into a Tropical Storm just six short hours later. [2] Its winds gradually became more damaging when Sandy slowly moved northward. On October 24th, Sandy had officially changed from a Tropical Storm to an actual hurricane. Its first victim was an area of land near Kingston, Jamaica. Just a few hours later, the storm made its way back into the Caribbean Sea, and was classified as a Category 2 hurricane. On October 25th, Hurricane Sandy hit the country of Cuba, classifying as now a Category 3 hurricane. It soon weakened in power and became a Category 1 hurricane. On October 26th, Hurricane Sandy had begun its pa...
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...e affected a total of 24 states. [3] These states were mainly within the eastern seaboard, ranging from down in Florida to all the way up to Maine. The storm’s path also stretched west across the Appalachian Mountains to states like Ohio to Wisconsin. The two states that encountered much more severe damage than others were New Jersey and New York. The famous Jersey Shore Boardwalk located in Seaside Heights, NJ, is a popular tourist attraction that was completely ripped apart. Amusement park rides such as roller coasters could be found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane’s storm surge hit New York City and flooded hundreds of streets, tunnels and subway lines. The power was cut off in and around the city for up to two weeks in some homes. The reported costly damage was more than $65 billion, making it the second most expensive hurricane in US history. [4]
A lot of homes, businesses, and other places were destroyed. Atlantic city homes were flooded. Many people, not just in New Jersey, had no power for days to weeks. The storms surge made it all the way past the board walk. Hoboken, New Jersey was hit hard. Their homes, businesses, and transportation ways and means were destroyed. Winds there were counter-clockwise making it worse for Hoboken. A lot of New York was hit too. They also had no power for long periods of time. Many of their homes and etc. were destroyed during the storm.
With the winds and waters sweeping away taking away people’s lives and property the storm made it to be one of the costliest in the history of America. According to FEMA:
Hurricane Katrina left a devastating scar on the citizens of the southern coast of the U.S., especially New Orleans, Louisiana. The category 5 hurricane was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the most deadly. Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29th, 2005 and after that day, 66,000 people were displaced from their homes. Of those who decided to ride out the storm with hopes of success and survival as they had experienced with other storms, they were found on their rooftops, in their attics, hoping for boat or helicopter rescue, relying on others for help to survive. The storm had reached 28,000 square feet inward to Louisiana, which was 60 percent of the state. 1,100 Louisianans lost their lives, and 200,000 were displaced and/or lost their homes (Davis 8). It was a devastating time of despair and suffering. People were put through experiences that would scar them for a long time. While preparing for evacuation, people left most of their belongings at home to flee to a safer city or to find shelter in the Superdome and Convention Center. Some even decided to remain in their boarded up homes. After the hurricane had past, a few hours went by and a levee located near the Mississippi River canal broke leaving New Orleans flooded (Delisi). After the disaster, the state and federal governments were pointing fingers at each other as to who was to blame for the poorly planned evacuation and rescue efforts for the victims. The state government promised to help evacuate those who could not transport themselves. Citizens were told to go to the Superdome and convention center for evacuation, but the supplies needed for survi...
Wind speed picked up to a high of 105 miles per hour, and in Roanoke Virginia, it was 62 miles per hour. The storm surge, which is flooding from the ocean, destroyed houses, roads, and destroyed seawalls in North Carolina post-Hurricane Connie which happened a few days prior. Inland flooding was even worse than the storm surge. The Poconos and the Delaware River were hit the worst in history, the Broadhead creek was engulfed in water and killed thirty-seven people, and the Connecticut river raised to 30.6 feet! Bridges were damaged during the storm, along with 813 houses destroyed while another 14,000 were damaged. Hurricane Diane did severe damage to the East Coast and killed at least 183 people, injured 7,000, and cost one billion dollars worth of
On August 29, 2005, the third strongest and biggest hurricane ever recorded in American history hit the Gulf Coast at eight o’clock a.m. The interaction between a tropical depression and a tropical wave created a tropical storm later referred to as Hurricane Katrina (FAQS, 2013). Forming over the Bahamas, Hurricane Katrina gradually strengthened as it moved closer and closer to the Gulf of Mexico. Recorded on August 28th, 2005, Katrina jumped from a category three storm to a category five storm with maximum sustained winds up to 160 miles per hour. Although other hurricanes, such as Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Wilma, exceeded Katrina, this dominant storm was classified as the fourth most intense hurricane based its pressure capacity. Once Hurricane Katrina hit land, it was pronounced as a category four storm moving slowly. While people thought that the slow speed of this storm prevented trauma, records show that Katrina did more damage than any fast-moving storm could have ever achieved (Solanki, 2013). Katrina produced abundant debris. The debris was in such large quantity that if it was stacked together on a football field, the rubble would reach the elevation of ten and a half miles. The size of Katrina also caused 90,000 square miles to be affected. Once proclaimed a category three storm, Hurricane Katrina slowed to the speed of 155 miles per hour. At this point in time, Katrina proved to be the sixth most prevailing hurricane traced in history. (Solanki, 2013). Several different aspects of life were impacted by Hurricane Katrina such as availability of gasoline, economic issues, and the ability to have an adequate supply of drinking water (Solanki, 2013). Hurricane Katrina was a large storm ...
The month of August in 2005 was an extremely shocking and devastating time for the United States more particularly for the people of New Orleans, Louisiana. For a city that was already crumbling for many years something tragic was about to happen. On the 29th of August a rated Category 3 hurricane made landfall. The name of the tragic disastrous storm is Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina, will forever be known as one of the worst storms in United States history. Tearing apart the lives of so many people in just a short period of time(Hurricane Katrina, par. 1).
Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane at its highest, made impact between August 23-30th 2005, and has since gone down as the most devastating and costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. In preparation for the impact of the storm, on August 27th 2005, two days before the hurricane made landfall, President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Waterford nuclear plant was shut down for precautionary reasons in the wake of the oncoming storm and mandatory evacuations were issued for large parts of the southeast. Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans stated that about 80% of the 480,000 people asked to evacuate heeded warnings. Evacuation orders were also made for areas along the Mississippi coast, low-lying coastal areas in Alabama, as well as the barrier islands in western Florida Panhandle.
Isaac Storm On Friday evening, September 7, 1900, many of the 37,000 residents of Galveston, Texas, were settling down to dinner, few if any of them concerned about the steady 15 mph northerly wind rattling their windows. Within 48 hours, at least 8,000 of the townspeople would be dead, victims of the single worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Relatively few people are aware that the deadliest natural disaster in the United States was the hurricane that struck Galveston Island on September 8, 1900. One of the best resources that can be found to help fully understand the significance of this storm is Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson.
Hurricanes are formed over tropical waters. These intense storms consist of winds over 74 miles per hour (Ahrens & Sampson, 2011). The storms addressed here are Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. This paper will explore the contrasts and comparisons between these two horrific storms.
Hurricane Maria was destructive and caused a large amount of damage to the entire island of Puerto Rico. Maria hit on September 20 and was a category four hurricane, nearly a category five. Hurricane Maria has had a tremendous impact on the lives of Puerto Ricans and even the world.
A hurricane is easily the most powerful storm that mother-nature can throw at us. Every year people who live on the coasts fight hurricanes with no dismay. A hurricane is simply too strong. Their winds reach speeds of 75 mph. The winds around the eye wall can reach 130 to 150 mph. They are 200 to 300 miles in diameter. The number of casualties is endless, as well as the widespread destruction that takes millions of dollars to repair. Even if the hurricane doesn’t cause a lot of damage, the storm surge will. Storm surge is the great tidal waves that crash into our coasts and make huge floods that are caused by hurricanes.
The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a great amount of damage. However, there is one hurricane that happened in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States, a category 5 on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale. An estimated 1836 people died because of the hurricane and the flooding that happened after (Zimmermann 1). Katrina initially began forming over the Bahamas on August 23rd, as a tropical depression....
Hurricanes are one of the deadliest and most expensive natural disasters around. They are more common in areas of humid yet moist weather so they are very foreign to certain places. But to the places were hurricanes are the norm, the people take them extremely seriously because they kill people and ruin countless amounts of property. Hurricanes can attack and harm people in so many ways they can kill people, leave them homeless, it leaves children orphaned and disable them. On the west coast of the United States and other places hurricanes aren’t taken as seriously as other more common disasters, such as, earthquakes and volcanoes yet the hurricane can be a lot more damaging that both of those. Hurricanes are cyclones that develop over warm oceans and breed winds that blow yup to 74 miles per hour.
...ve damage occurred in New England where federal disaster areas were declared for seven counties in Massachusetts, five in Maine, and one in New Hampshire. Off Staten Island, two men were drowned when their boat capsized. Other fatalities occurred when a man fishing from a bridge was either blown or swept off in New York and a fisherman was swept off the rocks at Narrangansett, RI by heavy surf. Offshore, six lives were lost when the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat, sank. Total damage in the Halloween Storm, as it came to be known because of its date, was in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Hurricane is a natural disaster with far reaching consequences. It takes away the lives of millions of people and causes damage to almost all of human creation. It can cause extensive damage to coastlines and several hundred miles inland due to heavy rainfall. Floods and flying debris often plays havoc in the lives of people living along coastal areas. Slow moving hurricanes produce heavy rains in mountainous regions. Landfall and mud-slides can occur due to excessive rain. Chances of flash floods also brighten due to heavy rainfall. Below are some interesting facts about hurricanes.