Hurricane/typhoon CS

• Spatial setting

  • Warm waters of the Caribbean Sea are a breeding ground for tropical storms.
  • New York/New Jersey is infrequently affected by hurricanes, on average every 19 years.
• Temporal setting

  • Hurricane Sandy formed as a tropical storm on 22nd October.
  • Sandy moved through Cuba and the Bahamas during 25th/26th October.
  • Sandy made landfall on 29th October.
• Risk + Vulnerability

  • Densely populated coastal areas of New York and New Jersey with considerable infrastructure were badly hit.
  • The effects were exacerbated by a number of these areas being low lying.
• Hazards

  • Winds reached over 90mph, battering New York and New Jersey.
  • Storm surges as high as 4 metres were recorded and waves of 10 metres were seen in New York Bay.
  • Heavy rain fell over much of the east coast of the USA, turning to blizzards over the mountains.
• Economic impacts

  • More 18,000 flights were cancelled.
  • Total costs of damages was estimated at $75 billion.
  • Power cuts disrupted thousands of businesses.
• Social impacts

  • 72 people were killed directly by Sandy another 77 indirectly through falls, hypothermia etc.
  • Many schools were closed for several days.
  • 386,000 homes were damaged or destroyed leading to issues such as homelessness.
  • Millions of homes lost power.
• Environmental impacts

  • 10 metre sections of beach were lost in parts of New Jersey.
  • Wildlife habitats were destroyed by extensive flooding and fallen trees.
• Short-term responses

  • National Hurricane Centre issued warningsseveral days in advance.
  • Federal government signed emergency declarations before the hurricane hit to ensure aid would be available immediately.
  • National Guard and US Air Force were in on alert to help with the aftermath.
  • FEMA deployed over 7500 staff to the worst affected areas and set up 65 Disaster Recovery
  • Centres distributing bottles of water and food supplies.
  • American Red Cross deployed 4500 volunteers to help with the immediate aftermath.
• Long-term responses

  • In the following January the US Government approved a $50 billion aid recovery plan to the affected areas.
  • US Army Corps of Engineers carried out a post- flood survey of flood defence provision. As a result stricter buildings regulations have been introduced.
  • New York devised and released a “Stronger, More Resilient New York” plan focusing on rebuilding communities and improving future resilience to storm event
• • By December 2013 over half of those who had requested assistance had still not received any and 30,000 people in New York and New Jersey remained displaced
• FEMA's response was much improved compared to Hurricane Katrina suggesting that they had learned from the mistakes from the past and the co-ordination of the pre/post immediate responses was much improved.
• $50 billion was allocated to the recovery programme 75% of this had yet to be spent over two years after the disaster.
• Speed of the recovery differed considerably, often along socio-economic lines. For many of the most vulnerable federal aid was slow to materialise as seen in the rebuilding of housing in more deprived parts of New York.