Hurricane Sandy

[Mr. Rainman]

The amount of damage I am seeing in New Jersey and New York City is beyond comprehension. The death toll from this storm - and the eventual cost, which personally I think could rival Katrina - is likely going to be very high.

[jtmal0723]

We should rename the thread "Superstorm Sandy" as that's what all the media outlets are calling the storm at this point. the HPC is issuing advisories now and still track it the same track the NHC did.

[phw115wvwx]

At least 33 people are dead in the United States alone, and that number will sadly rise a lot more.  There's already been 69 other deaths in the Caribbean blamed on Sandy.  I hope everyone here that was directly in the path of this storm is safe.  This storm name will almost certainly be retired in my meteorological opinion when the final cost and toll are revealed.  It's already a worthy case study for years to come in research, too.

I hope the general public actually starts caring and learning about weather for once.  You just can't fit everything into one neat box, and Sandy showed that fact perfectly by how it transitioned from one state to another to produce hurricane and winter storm conditions from the same system.  For perspective here, astronomers have recently identified distant planets in our universe with weather so extreme that it would be impossible for life to exist.  Imagine a planet with winds faster than the speed of sound and a temperature difference of over 1,000°F between the day and night sides.  Those conditions have been observed on multiple planets.  You really have to appreciate things more when you explore our universe and realize how much weather can affect everything.

[TWCCraig]

Complete devistation here on LI. It's almost like Katrina here but a little less.

[TWCToday]

]

Complete devistation here on LI. It's almost like Katrina here but a little less.

Long Island is bad but comparing it to Katrina is pushing it a bit. Very different scenarios here. It's certainly the worst flooding event to ever hit NYC.

[toxictwister00]

]

Complete devistation here on LI. It's almost like Katrina here but a little less.

Long Island is bad but comparing it to Katrina is pushing it a bit. Very different scenarios here. It's certainly the worst flooding event to ever hit NYC.

Interestingly enough, Mike Bettes mentioned this morning that the damage up in Long Island did remind him of the damage on the MS Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

[Localonthe8s]

We have no power in North Jersey currently using Internet on my phone. Lots of trees down will try to take pics if I get a chance to go outside today

[TWCCraig]

We got the highest winds from this storm as a LLJ set up over LI with 110mph winds. Highest sustained winds here in Islip were 56mph gusting to 90mph, highest wind gust on the island was 96mph. Still without power here. The damage here was way worse than Irene, Fire Island will never be the same again. The worse hurricane here since the 1938 hurricane.

[Localonthe8s]

The NJ coastline was battered as with NY. It's going to take time to rebuild. What about New England? was Boston heavily affected like NY? So far NYC is still "shut down" no transit services running all offices and schools still closed

[Pop Light Brown]

Boston's doing pretty well, considering many are without power. There's some damage, but it's nowhere near what we saw from Rhode Island on down. Some suburbs cancelled Halloween trick or treating due to the aftermath. However, a bow echo did travel north along the eastern Mass. coast yesterday evening.

Logan International is open, but no flights are coming in or out.

Not sure how Martha's Vineyard and other island getaways are doing.

[Mr. Rainman]

I must say I am very happy to see that FEMA and the government are handling this much better than in Katrina. It looks the lesson she left in 2005 has been heeded this week.

[ndinminot]

Death toll now up to 72 in the East Coast

[TWCCraig]

Got power back. Gas stations are running out of gas and people are starting to get very desperate around here.

[toxictwister00]

Got power back. Gas stations are running out of gas and people are starting to get very desperate around here.

Glad to hear you have power again, from what I've heard about half of the 8+ million who lost power now has it restored since Monday. I feel terrible for the folks in Staten Island, I hope city officials and FEMA start working more aggressively and urgently as they can today and into the weekend to help the residents there recover from the aftermath.

On another note to Sandy, I think it's clear that going by damage estimates, Sandy should rank in the top 5, if not possibly #2, replacing Hurricane Ike or Andrew (when adding in inflation it would rank #2 at 43 Billion) as the Second Costliest Hurricane running behind Hurricane Katrina (2005).

As far as the deadliest hurricane ranking, Sandy will most likely come in the top 5 as well somewhere between Ike #3 (2008) and Hugo #4 (1989) as the current death toll stands at 94 and unfortunately could rise over the weekend.

Lastly I saw this on weather.com of comparisons between the big female powerhouses, Katrina, Irene, and Sandy.

[Eric]

That's an amazing graphic!