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Hurricane Sandy Essay

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HURRICANE SANDY Hurricane Sandy was a tropical cyclone that devastated portions of the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States in late October 2012. The eighteenth named storm and tenth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, as measured by diameter, with winds spanning 1,100 miles. Sandy is estimated in early calculations to have caused damage of at least $20 billion. Preliminary estimates of losses that include business interruption surpass $50 billion, which, if confirmed, would make it the second-costliest Atlantic hurricane in history, behind only Hurricane Katrina. Sandy developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22, quickly …show more content…

In the United States, Hurricane Sandy affected at least 24 states, from Florida to Maine and west to Michigan and Wisconsin, with particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York. Its storm surge hit New York City on October 29, flooding streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city. It is having various political effects in the United States especially in terms of the general election scheduled for November 6, 2012. Hurricane Sandy developed at 1500 UTC on October 22, when the National Hurricane Center initiated advisories on Tropical Depression Eighteen to the south of Kingston, Jamaica. The system developed from an area of low pressure and had organized convection. It moved slowly at first due to a ridge to the north. Low wind shear and warm waters allowed for strengthening, and the system became Tropical Storm Sandy late on October 22. Early on October 24, an eye began developing, and it was moving steadily northward due to an approaching trough. Later that day, the NHC upgraded Sandy to hurricane status about 65 mi south of Kingston, Jamaica. At about 1900 UTC that day, Sandy made landfall near Kingston with winds of about 80 mph. Just offshore Cuba, Sandy rapidly intensified to winds of 110 mph, and at that intensity it made landfall just west of Santiago de Cuba at 0525 UTC on October 25. After Sandy exited Cuba, the structure became disorganized, and it turned to the north-northwest over the Bahamas. By October 27,

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