Science Symposium: Hurricane Sandy

Isaiah Ramos                                                                                            11/6/2020

Meteorology                                                                                                Block 2

                                                      Hurricane Sandy

    Hurricane Sandy was by far the biggest hurricane of 2012, and one of the most destructive of the decade. It began as a tropical storm in the Caribbean on October 22. It then gradually developed into a Category 1 hurricane, hitting Jamaica with winds up to 80 mph. Sandy would then make landfall at Cuba with winds of 100 mph and developing into a Category 2 on October 25. For the next three days, Sandy would be heading northeast as a tropical storm, until reaching east of Virginia on October 29 and becoming Category 1. However, once it makes landfall at Atlantic City, New Jersey, it had already become an extratropical storm. What made it devastating was that it collided with a winter storm already in the area, becoming a large wintertime cyclone.

    I recall having to stay home because of Hurricane Sandy, and luckily my family was not heavily affected by it, we only lost power. However, families and their houses along the coast were likely destroyed or severely damaged based on how high the waves of this hurricane were. The hurricane finally died out on October 31, 2012, over Pennsylvania leaving large amounts of snow there. In New York City about 300 homes were destroyed and 44 lives were lost. The cost of all the damages and the general cost was 19 billion dollars. New York City looked for all of the emergency relief funding they could, but only received a total of 4.2 billion dollars. Overall, Hurricane Sandy had an everlasting impact by helping people realize how much climate change can affect the strength of the hurricane. Every year the numbers are constantly rising with the number of people afraid of global warming, but yet no major actions have yet to be taken. If no action is taken soon, there will be storms much worse than Sandy headed our way, I can guarantee it.