October 2012 - Remember Superstorm Sandy? It Wasn't The Big One - 1821 Hurricane Was

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON -- In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy wreaked major havoc on the United States, causing 117 deaths and leaving $62 billion worth of damage in its wake when it passed through New York and New Jersey. But Sandy wasn't the strongest storm ever to hit that region, and there is the potential for other, much bigger storms to strike, a new report warns.

Sandy was considered a Category 3 storm in its early stages, but by the time it hit New Jersey, it had been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone. Sandy was unusual in its very large storm surge and wide berth. But the report, released Thursday by the reinsurance company Swiss Re, digs back into the historical record to look at another storm -- an 1821 hurricane that struck the Mid-Atlantic states and moved north -- that would do a lot more damage than Sandy if it were to strike today.

"Hurricane Sandy was obviously a terrible event for the Northeast United States, but it really was not the worst-case scenario," said Dr. Megan Linkin, a natural hazards expert for Swiss Re and the author of the report. "The East Coast is not immune to a hurricane that brings a Sandy-like surge and extreme winds over a large area."

EDIT

Swiss Re produced this visualization of the potential flooding in Manhattan, were a storm similar to the Norfolk Long Island Hurricane to happen today:



EDIT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/18/sandy-hurricane-damage-co_n_5842958.html

[TexasProgresive]

1. Don't forget the Great New England Hurricane of 1938

The New England Hurricane of 1938 (or Great New England Hurricane, Yankee Clipper, Long Island Express, or simply the Great Hurricane of 1938) was the first major hurricane to strike New England since 1869. The storm formed near the coast of Africa in September of the 1938 Atlantic hurricane season, becoming a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale before making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane[1] on Long Island on September 21. The hurricane was estimated to have killed between 682 and 800 people,[2] damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at US$306 million ($4.7 billion in 2014).[3] Even as late as 1951, damaged trees and buildings were still seen in the affected areas.[4] It remains the most powerful and deadliest hurricane in recent New England history, eclipsed in landfall intensity perhaps only by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635. In 2012 Hurricane Sandy did far more property damage in terms of dollars, regardless of the fact it made landfall in southern New Jersey and was a similar in size storm, just two categories less.The 1938 storm still stands as the second costliest storm to strike New England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_New_England_Hurricane

My wife was a 6 month baby in Stamford when it hit.