page_title: Hurricane Sandy
section_title: Relief efforts
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Sandy / Aftermath / Relief efforts
caption_attribution_description: President Obama visits the American Red Cross Digital Command Center following Hurricane Sandy
context_page_description: Hurricane Sandy was the deadliest and most destructive, as well as the strongest, hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. Inflicting nearly $70 billion in damage, it was the second-costliest hurricane on record in the United States until surpassed by Hurricanes Harvey and Maria in 2017. The eighteenth named storm, tenth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the year, Sandy was a Category 3 storm at its peak intensity when it made landfall in Cuba. While it was a Category 2 hurricane off the coast of the Northeastern United States, the storm became the largest Atlantic hurricane on record. At least 233 people were killed along the path of the storm in eight countries.
  Sandy developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22, quickly strengthened, and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Sandy six hours later. Sandy moved slowly northward toward the Greater Antilles and gradually intensified. On October 24, Sandy became a hurricane, made landfall near Kingston, Jamaica, re-emerged a few hours later into the Caribbean Sea and strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane.
context_section_description: Several media organizations contributed to the immediate relief effort: Disney–ABC Television Group held a "Day of Giving" on Monday, November 5, raising $17 million on their television stations for the American Red Cross and NBC raised $23 million during their Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together telethon the same day. On October 31, 2012, News Corporation donated $1 million to relief efforts in the New York metropolitan area. As of December 2013, the NGO Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund had distributed much of the funding raised in New Jersey.
  On November 6, the United Nations and World Food Programme promised humanitarian aid to at least 500,000 people in Santiago de Cuba.
  On December 12, 2012, the 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Various television channels in the United States and internationally aired the four-hour concert which was expected to reach over 1 billion people worldwide, featuring many famous performers including Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, Dave Grohl, Billy Joel, and Alicia Keys. Web sites including Fuse.tv, MTV.com, YouTube, and the sites of AOL and Yahoo! planned to stream the performance.
  On December 28, 2012, the United States Senate approved an emergency Hurricane Sandy relief bill to provide $60 billion for US states affected by Sandy, but the House in effect postponed action until the next session which began January 3 by adjourning without voting on the bill. On January 4, 2013 House leaders pledged to vote on a flood insurance bill and an aid package by January 15. On January 28, the Senate passed the $50.5 billion Sandy aid bill by a count of 62–36. which President Obama signed into law January 29.
  In January 2013, The New York Times reported that those affected by the hurricane were still struggling to recover.
  In June 2013, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo set out to centralize recovery and rebuilding efforts in impacted areas of New York State by establishing the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR). He aimed to address communities' most urgent needs, and to identify innovative and enduring solutions to strengthen the State's infrastructure and critical systems. Operating under the umbrella of New York Rising, GOSR utilized approximately $3.8 billion in flexible funding made available by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development's (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program to concentrate aid in four main areas: housing, small business, infrastructure, and the community reconstruction.
  On December 6, 2013, an analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency data showed that fewer than half of those affected who requested disaster recovery assistance had received any, and a total of 30,000 residents of New York and New Jersey remained displaced.
  In March 2014, Newsday reported, that 17 months after the hurricane people displaced from rental units on Long Island faced unique difficulties due to lack of affordable rental housing and delays in housing program implementations by New York State. Close to 9,000 rental units on Long Island were damaged by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, and Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 per the NY State Governor's Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR). New York State officials said that additional assistance would soon be available from the HUD's Community Development Block Grant funds via the New York Rising program. On March 15, 2014, a group of those who remained displaced by the hurricane organized a protest at the Nassau Legislative building in Mineola, New York, to raise awareness of their frustration with the timeline for receiving financial assistance from the New York Rising program.
  As of March 2014, the GOSR released a press statement, that the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program had distributed more than $280 million in payments to 6,388 homeowners for damage from Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene or Tropical Storm Lee. Every eligible homeowner who had applied by January 20, 2014, had been issued a check for home reconstruction, inclu
caption: October 30, 2012, President Barack Obama visits the American Red Cross Digital Command Center following Hurricane Sandy
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