Hurricane Sandy tore up the East Coast on Monday, October 29th, causing devastating damages along the way. After encountering 2 other weather systems in New Jersey, Sandy was downgraded to an extratropical cyclone. Wind warnings and flood advisories for this storm stretched from Florida to Canada.
Damages were extensive, especially in New York and New Jersey. Overall, about 8.5 million homes and businesses lost power because of the storm. While both New York and New Jersey had over 2 million outages, New Hampshire only had 210,000 outages. Broken power lines caused fires and explosions in both New York and New Jersey.
New York City had to shut down their subway system because there was flooding and structural damage in the tunnels. In the 108 years that the New York subways have been operating, they encountered the worst damage from Sandy. The storm left 47 miles of track underwater, and once all damages are repaired, the MTA crew will have to inspect the 2,047 miles of both subway and commuter train tracks. The millions of people who rely on either the subway of commuter rail system were left suspended, and the city relied on 4,000 taxies to drive people throughout the city on Tuesday.
Disaster declarations for New York and New Jersey were approved by President Obama to aid them in their efforts to rebuild communities. At least 74 people in the United States and Canada died because of the storm, 22 of which were from New York, and another 69 people were killed in the Caribbean.
In New Hampshire, Sandy was considered one of the state’s most significant storms, in terms of power outages, following only the 2008 ice storm, the 2010 wind storm, and the 2011 snow storm. The areas that endured the most damage were the southern counties of Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford. Most of the damage was structural, such as broken power lines and damage from fallen trees.
More than 275 public schools were closed on Monday in New Hampshire. The majority of these schools were also closed on Tuesday, and 75 schools had delayed openings. Manchester-Boston Regional Airport cancelled both arrivals and departures because of Sandy.
More than 15,000 flights were cancelled in New York, and both Kennedy International Airport and La Guardia Airport were closed for several days. Amtrak prevented the use of their services in the Northeast for Monday and Tuesday. Airports were closed across the East Coast, including in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.