11 Facts About Hurricane Sandy

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1. Hurricane Sandy was a post-tropical cyclone that swept through the Caribbean and up the East Coast of the United States in October of 2012.^[Sharp, Tim. "Superstorm Sandy: Facts About the Frankenstorm." LiveScience. Accessed February 24, 2014, http://www.livescience.com/24380-hurricane-sandy-status-data.html.]
2. The hurricane began as a tropical wave in the Caribbean and quickly turned into a tropical storm in just 6 hours. It was upgraded to a hurricane on Oct. 24 when it reached 74 mph winds^[Sharp, Tim. "Superstorm Sandy: Facts About the Frankenstorm." LiveScience. Accessed February 24, 2014, http://www.livescience.com/24380-hurricane-sandy-status-data.html.]
3. The National Hurricane Center says that the tropical force winds extended 820 miles at their widest.^[Associated Press. "WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT SUPERSTORM SANDY A MONTH LATER." AP News. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/what-we-know-about-superstorm-sandy-month-later.]
4. Sandy’s pure kinetic energy for storm surge and wave destruction potential reached a 5.8 out of 6 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s scale.^[CBS Interactive. "Hurricane Sandy: Experts see record "destruction potential" in storm surges." CBSNews. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-sandy-experts-see-record-destruction-potential-in-storm-surges/.]
5. The total death toll reached 285, including at least 125 deaths in the United States.^[McCarthy, Tom. "'Sandy' to be retired as hurricane name by World Meteorological Organization." theguardian.com. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/12/hurricane-sandy-name-retire.]
6. The hurricane caused close to $62 billion in damage in the United States and at least $315 million in the Caribbean.^[Associated Press. "WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT SUPERSTORM SANDY A MONTH LATER." AP News. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/what-we-know-about-superstorm-sandy-month-later.]
7. Hurricane Sandy is the nation’s most expensive storm since Hurricane Katrina, which caused $128 billion in damage.^[Gerken, James. "Hurricane Sandy Was Second-Costliest In U.S. History, Report Shows." The Huffington Post. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/hurricane-sandy-second-costliest_n_2669686.html.]
8. New York was most severely impacted due to damage to subways and roadway tunnels.^[Boyle, Louise. "Hurricane Sandy batters New York's subway system as tunnels are flooded and network shuts down for up to FOUR DAYS." Daily Mail Online. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225164/Hurricane-Sandy-batters-New-York-Citys-subway-tunnels-flooded-network-shuts-down.html.]
9. In New York and New Jersey, storm surges were 14 ft above the average low tide.^[City of New York. "Sandy and Its Impacts." NYC.Gov. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://www.nyc.gov/html/sirr/downloads/pdf/final_report/Ch_1_SandyImpacts_FINAL_singles.pdf.]
10. At the height of the storm, over 7.5 million people were without power.^[Muskal, Michael, and Tina Susman. "Monster storm Sandy marches west, leaving death, chaos in its wake." Los Angeles Times. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/30/nation/la-na-nn-hurricane-sandy-destruction-20121030.]
11. The government wants to prevent future disasters from storms by having electrical transformers in commercial buildings hauled to upper floors, the ability to shutter key tunnels, airports and subways, and more.^[Amira, Dan. "Is New York City Ready for Another Sandy?." New York Magazine. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/new-york-hurricane-preparations-sandy-summer.html.]