Superstorm SandySandy’s damage in New York State could reach $33 billion
Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday that the damage in New York state from Superstorm Sandy could reach $33 billion; a firm specializing in damage estimate had earlier estimated that Sandy might have caused between $30 billion and $50 billion in economic losses from the Carolinas to Maine; these estimates include property damage, lost business, and extra living expenses; Cuomo’s estimate, which are based on studies by experts in his administration, are likely push these figures higher
Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday that the damage in New York state from Superstorm Sandy could reach $33 billion.
A firm specializing in damage estimate had earlier estimated that Sandy might have caused between $30 billion and $50 billion in economic losses from the Carolinas to Maine. These estimates include property damage, lost business, and extra living expenses. Cuomo’s estimate, which are based on studies by experts in his administration, are likely push these figures higher.
At $50 billion in damages, Sandy is the second costliest storm in U.S. history. Hurricane Katrina is number one.
Sandy battered parts of New York City and New Jersey with a storm surge as high as 14 feet, killed more than 100 people, and left more than 8.5 million people without power at its peak.
The New York Times reports that on Thursday, a nor’easter forced Sandy-related recovery efforts New York and New Jersey to halt, leaving hundreds of thousands of new people in darkness.
From Brooklyn to parts of the Jersey shore and Connecticut, about 750,000 customers — more than 200,000 from the new storm — in the region were without power in temperatures near freezing, some living for days in the dark.
Throughout Staten Island’s beach area, the storm had covered mountains of debris with several inches of snow. By mid-morning, it was starting to melt, filling the streets with dirty sludge.
Airlines canceled hundreds of flights before and during the new storm. On Thursday, there were about 600 canceled, according to flight tracking service FlightAware, mostly in the New York area.
The morning commute into the city was not affected.
Additional outages could stall recovery efforts, even though utility companies had prepared, adding extra crews ahead of the nor’easter.
Fox New reports that in New Jersey, there were about 400,000 power outages early Thursday; 150,000 of those were new. In New York City and Westchester, more than 70,000 customers were without power after the storm knocked out an additional 55,000 customers.
For Consolidated Edison, the extra outages were dealt with swiftly, so there were only about 3,000 additional customers without power from the total Wednesday of 67,000.
On Long Island, there were 125,000 new outages, but about 80,000 were restored, making a total of about 300,000 customers without power.
