Hurricane Sandy
| Category 3 hurricane ( SSHWS ) | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Emergence | October 22, 2012 | |
| resolution | October 29, 2012 | |
|
Peak wind speed |
|
|
| Lowest air pressure | 940 mbar ( hPa ; 27.8 inHg ) | |
| dead | 147 direct, 138 indirect (285 total) | |
| Property damage | $ 75 billion (2012) | |
|
Affected areas |
Puerto Rico , Haiti , Dominican Republic , Jamaica , Cuba , Bahamas , United States East Coast , Canada | |
| Season overview: 2012 Atlantic hurricane season |
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Hurricane Sandy was the 18th tropical cyclone and the 10th hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season . The storm formed in the Caribbean Sea , then moved northward across Jamaica , Cuba and the Bahamas, and finally reached New Jersey via the mainland of the United States . Sandy caused considerable damage on his track. Dozens of people were killed by the effects of the storm. With a diameter of almost 1800 km, the storm area is the largest ever measured in the Atlantic.
Storm course
On October 19, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) began monitoring a low-pressure area in the eastern Caribbean Sea north of the coast of South America . This developed very rapidly, and the NHC determined a high chance of a tropical cyclone developing on the following day . The system was able to organize itself slowly over the course of the next few days, so that on the evening of October 21st it built up a strong convection and formed a closed circulation. By October 22nd, it had intensified to such an extent that at 3:00 p.m. UTC it was classified as Tropical Depression Eighteen, centered about 350 miles south of Kingston , Jamaica . That same evening, during a reconnaissance flight by the Hurricane Hunters, it was found that the persistent winds on the surface had reached storm strength. The NHC then declared the system to be a tropical storm called Sandy . The following day the storm intensified and drifted northwards towards Jamaica. During October 24th, about 65 miles south of Kingston, a storm eye formed and Sandy was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane at 3:00 p.m. UTC . At 19:00 UTC, Sandy's Eye reached the south coast of Jamaica with sustained winds of 130 km / h. After crossing Jamaica, Sandy moved further north and intensified into a Category 2 hurricane before reaching the Cuban coast of Santiago de Cuba Province .
Sandy's center met in the early morning (local time) of October 25 at Playa Mar Verde on Cuba's coast, a good 10 km west of the city of Santiago de Cuba , quickly crossed the island in a north-northeast direction and reached Cabo Lucrecia just five hours later , Municipio Banes , again over water and continued north across the Bahamas. The mean wind speed when entering Cuba was 175 km / h and thus almost hurricane category 3, with much higher peaks and hardly weakened on the way over the island.
In the early morning of October 26th, Sandy weakened and was classified as a Category 1 hurricane northeast of the Bahamas due to her poorly visible eye . The hurricane appeared more and more disorganized on satellite images and weakened to a strong tropical storm on October 27 at 9:00 a.m. UTC, but only intensified into a hurricane a few hours later.
On October 29, 2012, the extreme wind field Sandys hit the east coast of the United States. The center of Sandys crossed the coast of the American mainland near Atlantic City in New Jersey on October 30 at around 0:00 UTC as a post-tropical storm with sustained wind speeds of around 150 km / h and a central air pressure of 946 mbar . On the approach to the coast, Sandy had an expansive wind field. New York City and the Washington, DC / Baltimore area were within the radius of the hurricane force winds, tropical winds stretched along the east coast northeast to Boston and southwest to North Carolina.
The national weather service warned of blizzard conditions and forecast up to 60 centimeters of fresh snow for parts of the Appalachian Mountains . The center of the storm moved between Baltimore and Philadelphia over Wilmington at around 11 p.m. local time . The storm then moved further inland and continued to weaken.
Preparations
Jamaica
In the run-up to the storm, the authorities had closed the airports and imposed a 48-hour curfew in larger towns. More than a thousand people fled vulnerable areas to emergency shelters.
Cuba
Based on the experience with the devastating Hurricane Flora , which killed over 1,750 Cubans in 1963, Cuba has built a well-functioning civil protection system. In the run-up to “Sandy”, more than 340,000 people were evacuated to safe accommodation. Most of them could stay with family members or neighbors. 15,000 people were placed in evacuation centers.
United States
Sandy predictions were difficult because there was no precedent for forecasters to use. Typically, hurricanes approaching the east coast of the United States at this angle are deflected out into the open Atlantic by the semi-stationary Icelandic Depression, but at the end of October 2012 Iceland was in a high pressure area - an extremely unlikely event at 0.2% at the time. In addition, an extremely early seasonal snow storm was approaching from the Great Lakes , fueling Hurricane Sandy with additional energy. Given this situation, which had never been observed before, the meteorologists at the National Weather Service consciously avoided drawing an extreme scenario, even though the forecasts calculated by the weather models gave cause for this. They did this not because they thought such an event was impossible, but because it had never happened before. Meteorologists need to be cautious when predicting an unprecedented event.
In several US states, the governors had already declared a state of emergency before the hurricane hit. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the evacuation of 375,000 residents from low-lying areas in Manhattan and Brooklyn . Likewise, residents of the endangered stretches of coast of Long Island have been asked to leave their homes. The New York harbor was closed and larger ships had to leave it. The public transport as well as numerous trains from Amtrak in the region were set and several bridges were blocked. The New York airports were closed. Wall Street trading was suspended on October 29th and 30th. The New York City Marathon was canceled two days before its scheduled start (November 4th).
The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station was shut down according to the operators for refueling, about a week before the hurricane. It is the oldest operating nuclear power plant in the USA and is of the same type as the Fukushima I-1 reactor .
President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Mitt Romney temporarily canceled their campaign events.
Effects
At least 285 people were killed as a result of the storm. 161 in the USA and 104 in Haiti alone.
| country | Fatalities | Missing | Damage (in USD) | swell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bahamas | 2 | 0 | 700 million | |
| Dominican Republic | 3 | 0 | 30 million | |
| Haiti | 54 (50) | 21st | 750 million | |
| Jamaica | 1 | 0 | 100 million | |
| Canada | 1 (1) | 0 | 100 million | |
| Cuba | 11 | 0 | 2 billion | |
| Puerto Rico | 1 | 0 | Unknown | |
| United States | 74 (87) | 0 | 71.4 billion (estimated) | |
| total | 147 (138) | 21st | 75 billion (estimated) |
Jamaica
The hurricane wreaked havoc in some areas, killing one person.
Cuba
The hurricane caused severe damage in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba , Guantánamo and Holguín . Numerous roofs were covered, some houses collapsed completely, trees were uprooted, electricity and telephone poles were broken. Many public institutions such as schools and hospitals also suffered severe damage. The electricity supply in Santiago completely collapsed. In the province of Granma , the coastal town of Niquero was flooded . In the Guantanamo prison camp , a preliminary hearing on the attack on the US destroyer Cole was postponed due to the hurricane . The second round of elections for the Munizipial - parliaments in Cuba was postponed for a week.
In the province of Santiago de Cuba alone, 130,000 houses are affected by the hurricane. Of these, around 36,000 buildings were partially and over 15,000 completely destroyed. Serious crop failures, especially for coffee and sugar, have been recorded. Tourist facilities were also affected. The beach hotel Bucanero in Siboney , a few kilometers east of Santiago, was completely destroyed, according to Cuban television. Private houses in the village were not spared either. According to official figures, eleven people, nine in Santiago province and two in Guantánamo, have died, including a 4-month-old baby, mainly as a result of house collapses. Dissident circles also report up to 22 deaths in the Mar Verde prison near the coastal section of the same name, where Sandy met the Cuban mainland. The Cuban government is endeavoring to prevent the renewed flare-up of the cholera outbreak of summer 2012 and the increased spread of dengue fever through increased hygiene measures . Regular school lessons in Santiago de Cuba were interrupted for over a week and only resumed on the Monday of the week after next (on November 5th), partly in temporary facilities, as many school buildings in the province were badly damaged and partly completely destroyed had been. The resumption of studies at the Universidad de Oriente in Santiago took place a week later. The almost complete restoration of the power supply was reported a good three weeks after the hurricane. The renewed flare-up of cholera could not be prevented according to officially unconfirmed reports. The situation in the provinces of Santiago and Guantánamo in particular is very serious. 50 cases were reported from the city of Santiago de Cuba and 200 from La Maya .
Sandy is considered to be the worst cyclone in this area since Hurricane Flora , which devastated southeastern Cuba in 1963.
Haiti
Most of the damage and most of the deaths Sandy caused in Haiti can be attributed to extreme rainfall. In the city of Les Cayes, almost 700 mm of rain fell within 24 hours, which corresponds to almost the entire mean annual rainfall in Germany. This extreme rainfall destroyed numerous emergency shelters in which the survivors of the earthquake from 2010 until today live. 18,000 families were left homeless in the capital Port-au-Prince . Another consequence of the heavy rainfall is the destruction of the harvest. "What was not destroyed by Hurricane Isaac [in August / September of this year], Sandy has now destroyed," said Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe on the situation. Finally, aid organizations fear a new rise in cholera cases . The aftermath of the earthquake had led to an epidemic that resulted in 600,000 Haitians falling ill, 7,400 of whom died.
In early November 2012, the Haitian government declared a state of emergency as the harvest had been destroyed in large parts of the country.
Dominican Republic
In the Dominican Republic, 26,000 people had to leave their homes, almost 5,000 homes were flooded and 141 localities were temporarily cut off from the outside world because rivers overflowed their banks. Two people were killed.
Bahamas
In the Bahamas, the storm uprooted trees, knocked over electricity pylons and damaged houses. The 66-year-old manager of a bank died after falling from his balcony.
United States
There have been blackouts and power cuts in New York and other affected regions. 250,000 New Yorkers were without electricity after an explosion in a substation . The failure of the emergency generator led to a complete evacuation of the Langone Medical Center at New York University . All 200 patients were taken to nearby hospitals.
The storm surge caused by Sandy and waves up to seven meters high resulted in damage to the coasts from flooding and coastal erosion . Because the storm surge coincided with a spring tide , the level in Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan reached a new high, which exceeded the previous high when Hurricane Donna passed through . As a result, several subway tunnels were flooded for the first time in over 100 years . The Hudson River temporarily overflowed its banks and flooded several streets. In Breezy Point, Queens borough , about 80 houses burned down after an arc fault from a ripped power line started a fire that was fanned by the strong wind and spread rapidly. A dam on the Hackensack River broke in New Jersey . The southern part of Brooklyn , the Red Hook district , was also affected , where, among other things, the historic building of the Red Hook stores was submerged up to a meter and a half by a tidal wave.
In addition to the strong winds, there was prolonged heavy rain on the order of 300 liters per square meter during the hurricane. That corresponds to a water column of 30 centimeters. The cause of the heavy rain is that the warm and humid air of the hurricane meets the cool autumn air over the eastern United States.
The NOAA ( National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ) observed and documented Sandy.
The storm destroyed the replica of the bounty on the way to winter quarters off the coast of North Carolina . 14 of the 16 crew members were able to save themselves in a life raft. A woman was taken from the sea a few hours later and died in the hospital. The captain of the ship is missing.
By November 5th, 900,000 homes in New Jersey were still without electricity; in New York State it was 700,000. Gasoline was also still very scarce. A winter storm was expected on November 7th.
The damage and problems are indications of how ailing the US infrastructure is. Much of the power and telephone lines still run above ground on wooden poles, and although electricity demand in the country has increased by 25 percent since 1990, the construction of transmission capacities declined by 30 percent over the same period. According to the ASCE engineering association , every fourth of the 600,000 bridges is unstable or inoperable and around 15,000 of the 85,000 dams have a high potential risk.
reception
Sandy raised awareness of global warming among the American public . One of the reasons for the extent of the storm damage was the rise in sea level by 30 centimeters in 100 years. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said it was wrong to speak of a " flood of the century ". Storms like Sandy would be the new normal.
On December 12, 2012, a benefit concert called 12-12-12: Concert for Sandy Relief took place in New York's Madison Square Garden for the benefit of the American victims of the hurricane. a. Bruce Springsteen , Paul McCartney , the Rolling Stones , Chris Martin , Kanye West and Alicia Keys performed. The organizers were John Skyes, president of Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises , film producer Harvey Weinstein and James Dolan, executive chairman of the Madison Square Garden Company, who together had hosted a fundraising concert after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 .
With ticket sales and sponsorship money, US $ 32 million had already been raised in the run-up to the concert, which went to the Robin Hood Foundation to supply those in need with food, clothing and medicine . During the concert, which was broadcast live around the world on television, radio and the Internet, appeals were made for donations, which, according to media reports, raised at least another 20 million US dollars.
The youth book "Hundert Stunden Nacht" by Anna Woltz is about a girl Sandy has to survive.
Web links
- All articles and backgrounds , Spiegel Online
- Satellite film about Sandy (27.5 MB; animated GIF)
- Pictures and comparison of the wind strengths of Sandy and Katrina , NASA (English)
- Images and weather alerts to Hurricane Sandy, the National Hurricane Center (English)
- Hurricane Sandy Tropical Cyclon Report National Hurricane Center (PDF, 14.1 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1100 miles on October 29, 2012
- ↑ Sandy Becomes Largest Atlantic Storm on Path to Northeast ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , San Francisco Chronicle online, October 29, 2012
- ^ Hurricane Sandy Tropical Cyclone Update (Corrected) , NHC, October 25, 2012
- ^ Hurricane Sandy Advisory 12 , NHC, October 25, 2012
- ↑ Daniel Brown: Post-tropical cyclone Sandy Discussion 30 ( English ) National Hurricane Center. October 30, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
- ↑ weather.com Hurricane Tracker and Satellite Image
- ↑ a b c d One dead and severe damage: Hurricane "Sandy" swept over Jamaica . In: spiegel.de , October 25, 2012, accessed on October 25, 2012.
- ↑ Datos preliminares del impacto del huracán Sandy a su paso por Cuba , Mesa Redonda near Cubadebate from October 26, 2012
- ↑ Eric Holthaus: New York faces most intense storm in history . In: MarketWatch , The Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2012. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ US Nuclear Plants Brace for Hurricane Sandy Impact . In: nationalgeographic.com , October 29, 2012, accessed October 30, 2012.
- ^ Liveticker for Sandy . In: spiegel.de
- ^ Hurricane "Sandy": New York is gearing up for a monster storm . In: spiegel.de , October 28, 2012, accessed on October 28, 2012.
- ^ A b Dana Smith: Bahamas Back In Business After Hurricane Sandy . In: The Tribune , October 27, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
- ↑ a b c Hurricane Sandy kills 41 in Caribbean, targets US . CNBC. October 26, 2012. Accessed on October 26, 2012. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The Caribbean: Hurricane Sandy Situation Report No. 2 (as of 19 November 2012) (PDF; 151 kB)
- ↑ Jacqueline Charles and Curtis Morgan: HURRICANE SANDY: Sandy's death toll climbs to 44 in Haiti. The Miami Herald , October 27, 2012, accessed October 28, 2012 .
- ↑ Number of cyclone deaths in Haiti rises to 54 , Foxnews report from October 31, 2012
- ↑ The number of cyclone deaths in Haiti continues to rise ( memento of the original from December 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Message from Wavy dated October 31, 2012
- ↑ UN relief agency estimates 1.8 million Haitians have been affected by Hurricane Sandy
- ^ Haiti struggles to recover after Issac and Sandy , reliefweb.int
- ↑ Haiti: 44 décès en un mois, le choléra en hausse après Sandy
- ↑ Flying debris kills woman amid Toronto storm . Retrieved October 29, 2012.
- ^ Hydro worker killed during Sandy repairs in Ontario , report from CBC-News from October 31, 2012
- ↑ Preliminary estimates peg insured damages from "Superstorm" Sandy at $ 100 million in Canada ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Message from Yahoo! from November 28, 2012
- ↑ Hurricane Sandy Tropical Cyclone Report (PDF; 14.8 MB)
- ↑ Number of cyclone deaths in the USA rises to 102 , Reuters report of November 2, 2012
- ↑ Number of cyclone deaths in the USA rises to 106 , CNN report from November 2, 2012
- ↑ Number of cyclone deaths in the USA rises to 109 ( memento of the original from March 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , News item from NBC News dated Nov. 3, 2012
- ↑ Number of cyclone deaths in the USA rises to 113 , Upi report dated November 3, 2012
- ↑ US Northeast digs out from snow as gas rationing spreads ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Number of cyclone deaths in the USA rises to 131 , Reuters report of November 16, 2012
- ↑ Christie estimates Sandy damages at $ 29.4 billion , Philly bulletin dated November 24, 2012
- ↑ Hurricane “Sandy” raged in eastern Cuba ( memento of the original from October 22, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Granma Internacional , October 25, 2012
- ↑ Huracan Sandy tras su paso por Niquero ((((ULTIMA HORA)))) Octubre 25 del 2012 , excerpt from a Cuban regional channel on YouTube from October 25, 2012
- ↑ Segunda vuelta de municipales en Cuba, postergada por Sandy, será el domingo ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , El Nuevo Herald of October 31, 2012
- ^ Raúl en Santiago de Cuba , Granma of October 29, 2012
- ↑ Santiago de Cuba: deja huracán Sandy cuantiosas pérdidas ( Memento of February 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , Cubavisión of October 26, 2012
- ^ Sarah Rainsford: Hurricane Sandy: Cuba struggles to help those hit (+ video), BBC November 12, 2012
- ↑ Informa la Defensa Civil Perdidas de vidas humanas por el paso del huracán , Granma from October 26, 2012
- ↑ Aumentan cifras de muertos en cárcel de Santiago de Cuba , cubanet of October 29, 2012
- ↑ The devastation caused by "Sandy" in the Caribbean is even more severe , Badische Zeitung of October 31, 2012
- ^ Hurricane "Sandy": Cuba wants to prevent epidemics , amerika21.de of October 29, 2012
- ↑ Reanudan el lunes el curso escolar en Santiago de Cuba ( Memento of the original dated February 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Granma of November 3, 2012
- ↑ Universidad de Oriente reiniciará sus actividades ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Radio Reloj from November 9, 2012
- ↑ Power Back in Santiago De Cuba 3 Weeks After Sandy , ABC News of November 14, 2012
- ↑ Aumentan los casos de cólera en el oriente cubano , El Nuevo Herald of November 22, 2012
- ^ Yoani Sánchez : El huracán Sandy ya deja 21 muertos, once de ellos en Cuba. El País , October 26, 2012.
- ↑ Tras la tormenta, la recuperación . Juventud Rebelde , October 25, 2012.
- ↑ Valon Pierre: Inondations meurtrières . In: La lettre de Saint-Jacques , No. 188 (Janvier 2013), pp. 17–18, here p. 17.
- ↑ Sandy's death toll climbs to 44 in Haiti , The Miami Herald online, October 27, 2012
- ^ Storm damages crops in Haiti, fueling food price woes , Reuters report of October 29, 2012
- ↑ Cyclone Sandy: Haiti's government declares a state of emergency at zeit.de, November 4, 2012 (accessed November 4, 2012).
- ↑ Huracán Sandy dejó estela mortal a su paso por el Caribe , Cubadebate of October 27, 2012
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/nyregion/patients-evacuated-from-nyu-langone-after-power-failure.html?_r=0
- ↑ Fairway in Red Hook Reopens , in: I Happen to Like New York from March 3, 2013, online at: ihappentolikenewyork.com / ...
- ↑ www.noaa.gov/stormcentral ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , NOAA Post-Storm Operations Continuing (November 4) , Hurricane SANDY Response Imagery Viewer (with maps) ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Storm Analysis , NOAA and Hurricanes ( Memento of the original from October 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of August 2011, PDF; 428 kB)
- ↑ Sandy calls for victims: The last ride of the "Bounty" . October 30, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
- ^ Bounty crew member found dead, captain still missing . In: cbc.ca , October 29, 2012. Accessed October 30, 2012. (English)
- ^ The last hours of the “HMS Bounty” , spiegel.de, October 30, 2012, accessed on December 6, 2016
- ↑ a b New storm is brewing on the US east coast , spiegel.de, November 5, 2012, accessed on December 6, 2016
- ↑ Gasoline is offered at exorbitant prices , spiegel.de, November 4, 2012
- ↑ Marlies Uken: Storm damage: Sandy shows how ailing America's infrastructure is. In: zeit.de. October 30, 2012, accessed October 31, 2012 .
- ↑ Solutions Conditions Resilience Conclusion Sources . In: infrastructurereportcard.org , accessed on October 31, 2012. (English)
- ↑ Storm over America's Politics (A Commentary by Nikolaus Piper) , sueddeutsche.de, November 5, 2012
- ↑ science20.com Including thermal image from the NOAA National Hurricane Center: 'The water off NJ is about 5 ° F higher than average, and set record highs in 2012'
- ↑ a b Julia Maehner: Bigger! Better! Benefit! So it was 12-12-12 in New York. In: rollingstone.de. December 13, 2012, accessed February 8, 2013 .
- ↑ a b c d World stars rock for the victims of Hurricane "Sandy". In: Focus Online . December 13, 2012, accessed February 8, 2013 .
- ↑ Cathrin Schmiegel: Benefit Festival 12-12-12: Springsteen, The Who, Rolling Stones and many more. In: rollingstone.de. December 11, 2012, accessed February 8, 2013 .
- ↑ Patrick Sullivan: 12-12-12 Concert For Hurricane Sandy Victims, Other Benefit Shows Aren't Worth The Effort, Experts Say. In: huffingtonpost.com. February 5, 2013, accessed February 8, 2013 .
