Hurricane Sandy By the Numbers: A Superstorm’s Statistics, One Month Later

[longknife]

by Kayla Webley

Four weeks have gone by and the extent of the damage is just now beginning to be estimated. The numbers are staggering!

25,000,000,000
Estimated dollar value of the lost business activity as a result of Sandy, according to financial analysis firm IHS Global Insight.

8,100,000
Number of homes that lost power. The outages affected people in 17 states, as far west as Michigan.

Read more: Hurricane Sandy By the Numbers: A Superstorm’s Statistics, One Month Later | TIME.com

 

[waltky]

Totaling up the damages after Sandy...

After Sandy, lower Manhattan limps back to life
November 26, 2012 — The hum of massive mobile generators, boilers and pumps emerges blocks from Manhattan's Financial District and turns into a steady din south of Wall Street — the now-familiar sound of an area laboring to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

Other parts of the city have gotten mayoral visits and media attention after the Oct. 29 storm killed dozens of residents and tore apart homes in coastal neighborhoods. Less obvious were the millions upon million gallons of sea water that wreaked havoc on subterranean electrical panels and other internal infrastructure throughout lower Manhattan, making them unusable even after power was restored to the area. "There were waves on Wall Street, and it all ended up here," Mike Lahm, a building engineer who rode out the storm at 120 Wall Street, said during a recent tour of the skyscraper's basement.

Nearly a month later, some of the high-rises that are home to investment banks, large law firms and luxury apartments have bounced back quickly. But others buildings remain eerily dark and vacant. Landlords have warned full power won't be back for weeks, if not months, leaving businesses and residents displaced and uncertain about when — and even whether — they'll return. JP Morgan Chase, the Daily News and the American Civil Liberties Union are among tenants still operating in satellite locations after getting washed out of their headquarters in lower Manhattan.

Heavy flooding also hit a complex of multimillion-dollar apartments along the Hudson River, whose well-heeled owners — reportedly including Gwyneth Paltrow and Meryl Streep — could quietly retreat to second or third homes on higher and drier ground. "What you're looking at here is a mass exodus," downtown resident Gail Strum said as she retrieved some files and other belongings from a rental apartment building that's still without power. "It feels like there's no coming back." On paper, Strum's assessment sounds too pessimistic. The city Buildings Department declared only nine buildings in lower Manhattan unsafe because of structural damage from the storm, and the power company, Consolidated Edison, says all buildings citywide had access to electricity and steam power by Nov. 15.

A real estate consulting firm that's tracking the lower Manhattan recovery, Jones Lang LaSalle, says 49 of the 183 office buildings in the business district were closed because of mechanical failures. By the latest count, at least half were back in full operation, even if it has meant relying on temporary power. More are expected to follow. "We see that as a very healthy pace," said John Wheeler, a Jones Lang LaSalle executive.

More After Sandy, lower Manhattan limps back to life | CNS News

See also:

Cuomo: Sandy Cost NY, NYC $42B in Damage and Loss
November 26, 2012 — Superstorm Sandy ran up a $42 billion bill on New York and the state and New York City congressional leaders are preparing big requests for federal disaster aid.

The cost includes $32 billion for repairs and restoration, but also includes an additional accounting of $9 billion for mitigation of damage and for preventive measures for the next disastrous storm. "It's common sense; it's intelligent," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said of the effort to seek preventive work for the next storm. That would include protecting the electrical power grid and cellphone network. "Why don't you spend some money now to save money in the future? And that's what prevention and mitigation is." Cuomo said that Sandy caused more costly damage than Hurricane Katrina that slammed the Gulf Coast in 2005, although Katrina had a far higher death told than Sandy.

He said New York taxpayers can't foot the bill: "It would incapacitate the state. ... Tax increases are always a last, last, last resort." The most basic recovery costs for roads, water systems, schools, parks, individual assistance and more total $15 billion in New York City; $7 billion for state agencies; $6.6 billion in Nassau County and $1.7 billion in Suffolk County, both on suburban Long Island; and $527 million in Westchester County and $143 million in Rockland County, both north of New York City; according to a state document used in the private briefing of the delegation and obtained by The Associated Press. Cuomo met with New York's congressional delegation Monday to discuss the new figures that he said is "less than a wish list." The delegation, Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will now draw up a request for federal disaster aid.

Sen. Charles Schumer said the unprecedented damage "demands a strong and equally serious response from the federal government." "Make no mistake, this will not be an easy task, particularly given the impending fiscal cliff, and a Congress that has been much less friendly to disaster relief than in the past," Schumer said. "We will work with the (Obama) administration on supplemental legislation, to be introduced in the upcoming December session of Congress, that will set us on the road to meeting New York's needs. This will be an effort that lasts not weeks, but many months, and we will not rest until the federal response meets New York's deep and extensive needs." "It really is survival," said Rep. Peter King, R-New York. "This is an emergency. This should be separate of all the debate about the fiscal cliff and everything else."

More Cuomo: Sandy Cost NY, NYC $42B in Damage and Loss | CNS News

 

[Claudette]

Sandy was a Cat 1.

NY, NJ and everyone else who was affected should be on their knees thanking God that Sandy wasn't a Cat 5.

 

[Katzndogz]

Sandy was a tropical depression shortly after it made landfall. Had it not joined with an ice storm, there wouldn't have been this kind of damage. The damage was caused primarily by storm surge driving water inland and over the islands.

It's global cooling.

 

[Old Rocks]

Sandy was a tropical depression shortly after it made landfall. Had it not joined with an ice storm, there wouldn't have been this kind of damage. The damage was caused primarily by storm surge driving water inland and over the islands.

It's global cooling.

Dumb.

Sandy, while a Cat 1, had the lowest pressures ever recorded in a hurricane that far north. Also, the sheer size was a very large factor in the amount of damage. It carried more total energy than many Cat 4 and 5 storms. Then there was the fact that while most hurricanes rapidly lose energy as soon as the approach land, due to the fact that the warm water is where they draw their energy from, Sandy became a cyclonic storm, due to the addition of the Nor-easter, as it made landfall. These cyclonic storms get their energy from the temperature differance, and, since Sandy came in as a tropical warm storm, and the nor-easter had snow in it, it had plenty of differance to draw energy from.

While AGW was not a prime driver of this storm, it contributed to the size and power of the hurricane because the Gulf Stream waters were 2 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year. The primary factor was a series of coincidences that led to the worst possible case. A high over Greenland that steered the hurricane directly at the Northeast. The fact in came in on a very high tide, and joined with the noreaster just as it made landfall is kind of like rolling snake eyes four or five times in a row.

 

[waltky]

Granny says dat's another reason rich folks oughta pay more o' dey's fair share o' taxes...

Sandy relief bill eats up taxes on the rich
Monday, January 28, 2013 - Lawmakers to approve $50B

Congress is poised to clear the final $50 billion chunk of emergency aid for Superstorm Sandy relief Monday — and in one vote, it will have used up all the new tax money President Obama won by raising rates on the wealthy in the “fiscal cliff” deal. The tax deal that Congress and Mr. Obama reached in early January cut taxes overall but let them rise on individuals making more than $250,000 a year and families with income of more than $300,000. Those increases brought the government somewhere on the order of about $40 billion for fiscal year 2013. The spending bill for storm recovery costs $50 billion and, coupled with an additional $9.7 billion in flood insurance money Congress passed this month, brings the total tab for Sandy to $60 billion.

Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, will offer an amendment in the Senate on Monday to try to offset the $50 billion by an across-the-board half-percent cut, but it is expected to fail, meaning almost the entire $60 billion will have been tacked onto the deficit — more than eating up the money gained from the additional taxes. “The Sandy aid packages swallowed more than the tax increases,” said Matt A. Mayer, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation who has been tracking Sandy spending. “Washington just doesn’t get the severity of our fiscal condition.” The Sandy spending is emergency funding that is added to this year’s balance sheet, while Mr. Obama’s tax increases will produce revenue into the future.

The Joint Committee on Taxation, which scores tax bills for Congress, said raising the income and investment tax rates and patching the alternative minimum tax will lead to $574.4 billion more in revenue over the next decade, compared with a scenario in which Congress had extended all Bush-era tax cuts. The Sandy spending is on a glide path through Congress, nearly three months after the storm struck the Northeast, killing more than 130 Americans, flooding hundreds of thousands of homes and damaging public infrastructure such as the New York City subway system.

Governors and lawmakers from the affected areas have been begging for the money to move, but it faced roadblocks first in the House, where Republicans balked at bringing it to the floor for a vote, and then in the Senate. After swearing in new senators Jan. 3, the upper chamber adjourned for two weeks. When they returned last week, they spent most of their time stalled over whether to change the rules on filibusters. “It’s long overdue,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said last week regarding Sandy relief.

Read more: Sandy relief bill eats up taxes on the rich - Washington Times