Storm Barrels Through Region, Leaving Destructive Path - The New York Times The New York Times U.S. |Storm Barrels Through Region, Leaving Destructive Path Search Continue reading the main story Hurricane Sandy battered the mid-Atlantic region on Monday, its powerful gusts and storm surges causing once-in-a-generation flooding in coastal communities, knocking down trees and power lines and leaving more than five million people — including a large swath of Manhattan — in the rain-soaked dark. At least seven deaths in the New York region were tied to the storm. The mammoth and merciless storm made landfall near Atlantic City around 8 p.m., with maximum sustained winds of about 80 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. That was shortly after the center had reclassified the storm as a post-tropical cyclone, a scientific renaming that had no bearing on the powerful winds, driving rains and life-threatening storm surge expected to accompany its push onto land. The storm had unexpectedly picked up speed as it roared over the Atlantic Ocean on a slate-gray day and went on to paralyze life for millions of people in more than a half-dozen states, with extensive evacuations that turned shorefront neighborhoods into ghost towns.

Even the superintendent of the Statue of Liberty left to ride out the storm at his mother’s house in New Jersey; he said the statue itself was “high and dry,” but his house in the shadow of the torch was not. The wind-driven rain lashed sea walls and protective barriers in places like Atlantic City, where the Boardwalk was damaged as water forced its way inland. Foam was spitting, and the sand gave in to the waves along the beach at Sandy Hook, N.J., at the entrance to New York Harbor. Water was thigh-high on the streets in Sea Bright, N.J., a three-mile sand-sliver of a town where the ocean joined the Shrewsbury River. “It’s the worst I’ve seen,” said David Arnold, watching the storm from his longtime home in Long Branch, N.J. “The ocean is in the road, there are trees down everywhere. I’ve never seen it this bad.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office said late Monday night that at least five deaths in the state were attributable to the storm. At least three of those involved falling trees.

About 7 p.m., a tree fell on a house in Queens, killing a 30-year-old man, the city police said. About the same time, two boys, ages 11 and 13, were killed in North Salem in Westchester County, when a tree fell on the house they were in, according to the State Police. In Morris County, N.J., a man and a woman were killed when a tree fell on their car Monday evening, The Associated Press reported. In Manhattan, NYU Langone Medical Center’s backup power system failed Monday evening, forcing the evacuation of patients to other facilities. In a Queens beach community, nearly 200 firefighters were battling a huge blaze early on Tuesday morning that tore through more than 50 tightly-packed homes in an area where heavy flooding slowed responders. Earlier, a construction crane atop one of the tallest buildings in the city came loose and dangled 80 stories over West 57th Street, across the street from Carnegie Hall. Soon power was going out and water was rushing in. Waves topped the sea wall in the financial district in Manhattan, sending cars floating downstream. West Street, along the western edge of Lower Manhattan, looked like a river.

The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, known officially as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel in memory of a former governor, flooded “from end to end,” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said, hours after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York ordered it closed to traffic.Officials said water also seeped into seven subway tunnels under the East River. Joseph J. Lhota, the transit authority chairman, called the storm the most devastating disaster in the 108-year history of the subway system. “We could be fishing out our windows tomorrow,” said Garnett Wilcher, a barber who lives in the Hammells Houses, a block from the ocean in the Rockaways in Queens. Still, he said he felt safe at home. Pointing to neighboring apartment houses in the city-run housing project, he said, “We got these buildings for jetties.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Hurricane-force winds extended up to 175 miles from the center of the storm; tropical-storm-force winds spread out 485 miles from the center. Forecasters said tropical-storm-force winds could stretch all the way north to Canada and all the way west to the Great Lakes. Snow was expected in some states.

Businesses and schools were closed; roads, bridges and tunnels were closed; and more than 13,000 airline flights were canceled. Even the Erie Canal was shut down. Subways were shut down from Boston to Washington, as were Amtrak and the commuter rail lines. About 1,000 flights were canceled at each of the three major airports in the New York City area. Philadelphia International Airport had 1,200 canceled flights, according to FlightAware, a data provider in Houston. And late Monday night, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said cabs had been instructed to get off New York City roads. A replica of the H.M.S. Bounty, a tall ship built for the 1962 movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Marlon Brando and used in the recent “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, sank off the North Carolina coast. The Coast Guard said the 180-foot three-masted ship went down near the Outer Banks after being battered by 18-foot-high seas and thrashed by 40-m.p.h. winds. The body of one crew member, Claudene Christian, 42, was recovered. Another crew member remained missing.

Delaware banned cars and trucks from state roadways for other than “essential personnel.” “The most important thing right now is for people to use common sense,” Gov. Jack Markell said. “We didn’t want people out on the road going to work and not being able to get home again.” Photo The Red Hook section of Brooklyn was flooded on Monday. Credit Robert Stolarik for The New York Times By early evening, the storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes, stores and office buildings. Consolidated Edison said that as of 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, 634,000 customers in New York City and Westchester County were without power. Con Edison, fearing damage to its electrical equipment, shut down power pre-emptively in sections of Lower Manhattan on Monday evening, and then, at 8:30 p.m., an unplanned failure, probably caused by flooding in substations, knocked out power to most of Manhattan below Midtown, about 250,000 customers. Later, an explosion at a Con Ed substation on East 14th Street knocked out power to another 250,000 customers.

In New Jersey, more than two million customers were without power as of 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, and in Connecticut nearly 500,000. President Obama, who returned to the White House and met with top advisers, said Monday that the storm would disrupt the rhythms of daily life in the states it hit. “Transportation is going to be tied up for a long time,” he said, adding that besides flooding, there would probably be widespread power failures. He said utility companies had lined up crews to begin making repairs. But he cautioned that it could be slow going. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up “The fact is, a lot of these emergency crews are not going to get into position to start restoring power until some of these winds die down,” the president said. He added, “That may take several days.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Forecasters attributed the power of the storm to a convergence of weather systems.

As the hurricane swirled north in the Atlantic and then pivoted toward land, a wintry storm was heading toward it from the west, and cold air was blowing south from the Arctic. The hurricane left more than 60 people dead in the Caribbean before it began crawling toward the Northeast. “The days ahead are going to be very difficult, Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland said. “There will be people who die and are killed in this storm,” he said. Alex Sosnowski, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, said potentially damaging winds would continue on Tuesday from Illinois to the Carolinas — and as far north as Maine — as the storm barreled toward the eastern Great Lakes. Mr. Cuomo, who ordered many of the most heavily used bridges and tunnels in New York City closed, warned that the surge from Hurricane Sandy could go two feet higher than that associated with Tropical Storm Irene last year. The PATH system, buses and the Staten Island Ferry system were also suspended. Mr. Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has said he expected to restore at least some service about 12 hours after the storm ended. But possible flooding within the subway system could prevent a full-scale reopening.

The storm headed toward land with weather that was episodic: a strong gust of wind one minute, then mist. More wind. Thin sheets of rain dancing down the street. Then, for a moment, nothing. The sky lightened. Then another blast of rain. Then more wind. The day brought a giddiness to schoolchildren who had the day off and to grown-ups who were fascinated by the rough, rising water. Some went surfing, discounting the danger. Felquin Piedra, 38, rode his Jet Ski from Queens to Lower Manhattan. “I love the waves,” Mr. Piedra yelled from New York Harbor. “The water is warm. I’ve jumped in several times.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story But even when landfall was still hours away, there was no holding back the advance guard of the storm — fast-moving bands of rain and punishing winds. It added up to devastation. Driving through places like Pompton Plains, N.J., late Monday afternoon was like an X-Games contest for drivers. They had to do tree-limb slaloms on side streets and gunned their engines anxiously as they passed wind funnels of leaves swirling on highways.

On City Island, off the Bronx mainland, Cheryl Brinker sprayed “Sandy Stay Away” on her boarded-up art studio, expanding a collage she started during Tropical Storm Irene last year. But by midafternoon, nearby Ditmars Street was under as much as five feet of water and Steve Van Wickler said the water had cracked the cement in his cellar. “It’s like a little river running in my basement,” he said. “There are cracks and leaks everywhere.” In some places, caravans of power-company trucks traveled largely empty roads; Public Service Electric and Gas said that 600 line workers and 526 tree workers had arrived from across the country, but could not start the repairs and cleanup until the wind had subsided, perhaps not until Wednesday. They will see a landscape that, in many places, was remade by the storm. In Montauk, at the end of Long Island, a 50-seat restaurant broke in half. Half of the building floated away and broke into pieces on the beach.

The 110-foot-tall lighthouse at Montauk Point — the oldest in the state, opened in 1796 — shuddered in the storm despite walls that are six feet thick at the base. The lighthouse keeper, Marge Winski, said she had never felt anything like that in 26 years on the job. “I went up in tower and it was vibrating, it was shaking,” she said. “I got out of it real quick. I’ve been here through hurricanes, and nor’easters, but nothing this bad.” A version of this article appears in print on October 30, 2012, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: STORM PICKS UP SPEED AND DISRUPTS MILLIONS OF LIVES. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Northeaster Dumps Rain and Wet Snow on Hurricane-Battered New York Area - The New York Times The New York Times N.Y. / Region |Northeaster Adds to Misery, Dumping Rain and Snow Search Continue reading the main story Photo A downed streetlight in Spring Lake, N.J., was covered in snow as a new storm threatened the recovery effort.

“I can see us actually moving backwards,” Gov. Chris Christie said. Credit Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times A northeaster threatened to unravel progress made since Hurricane Sandy ravaged the New York area, delivering a second angry serving of howling wind and high water on Wednesday in places where misery and frustration had yet to recede. The northeaster, a chilly brew of rain and wet snow blown in by gusts almost as powerful as those recorded during the hurricane, arrived with the dismaying potential to disrupt efforts to bring life back to normal from the Jersey Shore to the East End of Long Island. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie warned that the northeaster could leave many people in the dark again, only a few days after their power had been restored. “I can see us actually moving backwards,” he said in a news conference on Long Beach Island, which suffered some of the heaviest damage in the storm last week. The barrier island had reopened to residents, but as the northeaster closed in, the governor said he was cutting off access again. Photo Children carrying blankets struggled through windy snow along Rockaway Beach Boulevard in Queens on Wednesday.

Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times The storm, which covered cars and trees in the region in a coat of white, brought down power lines faster than repair crews could keep up, and fierce winds and blowing snow threatened to drive the crews off the job. By about 5 p.m., the northeaster had knocked out electricity to roughly 13,000 Consolidated Edison customers. All told, about 77,000 Con Edison customers had no power on Wednesday evening, up from about 64,000 earlier in the day, according to the company’s Web site. The numbers also went up on Long Island. The Long Island Power Authority began the day saying that 184,000 customers still lacked power. By day’s end, the total was 199,000. Advertisement Continue reading the main story About 151,000 Public Service Electric and Gas customers in New Jersey had no power before the new storm arrived. The company said the storm caused an additional 90,000 power failures statewide. By late Wednesday, Jersey Central Power and Light was reporting more than 219,000 customers without electricity.

Photo Snow started falling on debris left by Hurricane Sandy in Rockaway, Queens, as a new storm blew into the city Wednesday. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times About 6:40 p.m., the Long Island Rail Road temporarily suspended departures from Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn after a series of storm-related problems on several of its lines. But later, limited service was restored. The storm also snarled traffic in some areas, particularly along the Taconic State Parkway in Putnam and Westchester Counties, where the State Police said there had been multiple accidents. As snow from the northeaster made roads slippery and sloppy, the police said the death toll in New York City from the hurricane had risen to 41 with the death of William McKeon, 78, at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said Mr. McKeon was found on Tuesday “at the bottom of a pitch-black stairwell that was still wet and covered with sand” at 106-20 Shore Front Parkway in Rockaway, Queens. His head was bleeding and he was unconscious and unresponsive, Mr.

Browne said, adding that the medical examiner’s office determined on Wednesday that Mr. McKeon’s injuries were storm-related. Photo At La Guardia Airport, and other airports in the New York area, flights have been canceled in anticipation of the coming northeaster. Credit Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times The northeaster was another storm with an impossible-to-miss footprint on the weather maps. Its white swirl, smaller than the hurricane’s, looked ferocious. Road crews feared it would bring annoying slush and, later on, treacherous ice to hard-luck places where debris from the hurricane was still being cleared away. “This is the last thing we needed when we just started making progress,” said Nicole DeGorter, 19, a college student and lifelong resident of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, one of the communities that city officials were most concerned about. She said that the hurricane had driven her from her family’s house, where eight feet of water was churning on top of three feet of sand in the basement, and that she had moved into an uncle’s apartment nearby with five other people and four dogs. “It feels like it can’t get any worse,” Ms.

DeGorter said at midday Wednesday, as the cold rain started to fall. Video Snow After Sandy Still cleaning up after the hurricane, residents in Broad Channel, Queens, are desperate for heat, as temperatures drop and a snow storm batters the area. By Stephen Farrell on Publish Date November 7, 2012. . Watch in Times Video » embed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said low-lying areas had survived high tide on Wednesday afternoon without being inundated all over again, and a National Weather Service forecaster, David Stark, said the high tide had “come in under what we had initially expected, which is a good thing.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story But the mayor and other officials remained concerned about areas the hurricane had walloped. “The difference” between last week and this week, Mr. Bloomberg said, “is the barriers of sand or rock that were there before are not there.” The Weather Service’s coastal flood warning for New York Harbor remained in effect as the northeaster gained force, as did a wind warning for the city, Long Island and coastal Connecticut. But Mr. Stark said the surprise was the snow.

He said two inches had been reported in Bayside, Queens, and 3 ½ inches in Armonk, N.Y., in Westchester County. He said reports from inland sections of Fairfield County and New Haven County in Connecticut had mentioned three to five inches. Later, parts of Westchester reported as much as seven inches of snow. It was an ominous mix in places like Breezy Point, Queens, where there was a fear of the streets, not just because of the northeaster, but also because of unattended homes and stores that could tempt thieves. Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway was dotted with police checkpoints to ward off potential looters, an officer said. Ian Allyn, who was repairing a hurricane-battered drugstore while the first floor of his house sat in ruins, said, “I don’t think I can take another storm right now.” Reporting was contributed by J. David Goodman, Andy Newman, Sarah Maslin Nir, Michael Schwirtz and Daniella Silva. A version of this article appears in print on November 8, 2012, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Northeaster Adds to the Misery, Dumping Rain and Wet Snow.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Hurricane Sandy 2012 pictures: FIFTY DEAD...

and it's NOT over | Daily Mail Online Next FIFTY DEAD...and it's NOT over: Obama's grim warning as he prepares to visit scenes of hurricane 'major disaster' tomorrow Storm damage projected at £12bn // Ten people in New York among the dead // Many killed by falling trees President Barack Obama has declared a 'major disaster' in New York and Long Island President announces that he will visit New Jersey on Wednesday and warns that the crisis 'is not yet over' At least 7.4m properties across US East have lost power // New York City could be without power for a week NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg: 'Tragically we expect that number to go up' referring to New York death toll Record 13ft storm surge threatening lower Manhattan and howling winds left crane hanging from high-rise building Over 15,000 flights across the globe grounded due to Superstorm Sandy NYU Hospital loses backup power and evacuates patients // Nuclear power plant on alert More than 190 firefighters battled blaze destroying more than 80 homes in Breezy Point Stock trading is closed in the US again for a second day running - last time it was closed for two days was 1888 Classified as a post-tropical

 cyclone, Sandy is expected to turn north and track back into New York state tonight 1000+ images about Hurricane Sandy, October 2012 on Pinterest | Daily news, Mondays and Nyc Forward Cleveland, Ohio Waves pound a lighthouse on the shores of Lake Erie Tuesday, Oct.

30, 2012, near Cleveland. High winds spinning off the edge of superstorm Sandy took a vicious swipe at northeast Ohio early Tuesday, uprooting trees, cutting power to hundreds of thousands, closing schools and flooding parts of major commuter arteries that run along Lake Erie. (Tony Dejak, AP) See More A Storm-Battered Week of Reading: 28 October-3 November 2012 | Z e t e o Z e t e o From Dianne Stone, Zeteo Assistant Editor 28 October 2012 Reading today Marc Santora’s New York Times article on Hurricane Sandy as I scurry to hole up for the next couple of days in a nice dry spot and load up with fresh water. Santora points out that all over the mid-Atlantic, 50 million or more Americans are in this same predicament as Hurricane Sandy makes its presence known. Santora notes, “[s]andbag joined the Halloween scarecrows,” so I hope everyone in the region is spending time today getting prepared for the “Frankenstorm” that is about to hit. This is the perfect time to pick up some books to read.

Will let you know tomorrow which book I am going to be holed up with . . . 29 October 2012 CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders is a gem of a book to read on a rainy, blustery day such as today when the city shuts down. Funny, witty, and scary, Saunders draws you into his bizarre world with stories and a novella. “I had to step into a closet to perform my Hatred Abatement Breathing,” the protagonist notes, which left me thinking how original Saunders can be. Another line, “Is this the life I envisioned for myself? My God, no. I wanted to be a high jumper,” had me laughing out loud. The book is short and spicy and gives me time to watch the news between stories to check on Hurricane Sandy. Be safe! 30 October 2012 Blackout—no electricity and NYC shuts down. 31 October 2012 Reading James Barron in the New York Times, After the Devastation, a Daunting Recovery . Like most people in the region I have been cut-off for the last couple of days without electricity and can only read the Times by sunlight.

Sandy, Barron says, “remade the landscape and rewrote the record books as it left behind a tableau of damage, destruction and grief.” Could not have said it better myself, as most of us are left with the cleanup; not only of our homes but of our lives. Top image is of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in Santiago de Cuba. The photograph by Desmond Boylan (REUTERS) appeared in a 27 October Guardian , story on the storm. The wiry image is, the caption reads, “Power lines devastated by fire and the effects of Hurricane Sandy are seen in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York,” from a REUTERS on-line story of 30 October. 1 November 2012 Reading Time Out guide to find somewhere warm with electricity and running water. I just want to kick-back with some sunshine and a little moonshine. Wi-fi would not hurt either. 2 November 2012 Today is a day for books, television, and a chilled glass of wine. But alas! It is my fifth night and fourth day without electricity and my troubles are small compared to those families affected by hurricane Sandy. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

It has been said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” [A note from the Zeteo Editorial Adviser: As for who first said these words about what lies behind, before and within, according to the Quote Investigator (QI) it was not Emerson, Thoreau, Albert Jay Nock or Oliver Wendell Holmes, but rather one Henry Stanley Haskins, a Wall Street trader blamed in 1910 for “reckless and unbusinesslike dealing.” See an article on page 1 of the New York Times of February 17, 1910: “ Stock Exchange Shuts Haskins Out ; Finds Hocking Pool Leader Guilty of Reckless Dealing, but Lets Cause of the Smash Alone.” See also the relevant QI post of January 11, 2011 .] 3 November 2012 Excited for the first time since Monday at the prospect of the return of electricity because heat will surely follow. I am only without heat and electricity, but my fellow citizens and neighbors are missing family members, friends, and even a cold bed to sleep in because of Sandy.

I am, therefore, grateful for small things. – Hurricane Sandy is like a Signal 3 Typhoon in the Philippines Exclusive By Raïssa Robles Hurricane Sandy is like our Typhoon Signal Number 3, according to Renito Paciente, officer-in-charge of Pagasa’s marine meteorological services section. He explained to me that Hurricane Sandy has sustained winds of 74 to 95 mph (miles per hour). In the metric system which we use, this would be equivalent to 119 to 153 kilometers per hour (kph). In the US, Sandy is a Category 1 hurricane, but if something similar to Sandy were to batter Philippine shores, Pagasa would raise Signal No. 3, defined as “Tropical cyclone winds of 100 kmh (62 mph) to 185 kmh (115 mph) expected within the next 18 hours.” I became curious at how powerful Sandy really was, since the American media had taken to calling it a “Frankenstorm”.

And then photos like the one below were shared online by New York City residents, looking so eerily similar to scenes in Typhoon Frank (2008), Typhoon Ondoy (2009), Typhoon Sendong (2011) and even during the torrential rains last August: Flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy in Lower East Side, Manhattan posted on Twitter Flooding in Manila Underpass caused by heavy rains in August 2012. PHOTO posted by Charie Villa on Twitter Difference between a hurricane and a typhoon Paciente said the intensity of Sandy is similar to that of Typhoon Frank (which is just a bit stronger with sustained winds of 100 mph) and Typhoon Pedring (85 mph). But he added that we have been battered by far stronger typhoons such as Loleng (International codename Bab) in 1998 and Typhoon Pepeng (International Code Name Parma) in 2008, both with sustained winds of 120 mph (190 kmh).

Compared to our Typhoon Loleng and Pepeng, however, Typhoon Katrina which devastated the US in 2005 started out as an even stronger storm. It was classified as a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane with sustained winds of 175 mph (280 kmh) and then downgraded to Category 3 when it hit Louisiana and Mississippi. It was also my chance to ask Paciente why these natural phenomena had different names. Paciente explained to me that there are three “basins’ in which they are formed. When these are formed in the Atlantic Ocean or basin, they are called HURRICANES. When these are formed in the Indian Ocean, they are referred to as CYCLONES. And when formed in the Pacific Ocean, they are known as TYPHOONS. I asked him to explain to me what I had read in the Seattle Times about the origin of Sandy – that it formed initially somewhere near the Caribbean. I asked Paciente to explain the relation between the temperature of the sea to the formation of Sandy because Seattle Times said: One reason Sandy may have stayed tropical so long was the unusually warm waters of the Gulf Stream, a river of warm water that flows from the Caribbean up into the North Atlantic.

It was 5 to 9 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year. And as a tropical system, Sandy fed on those warm waters and kept traveling north, Masters said. That could account for the last-minute boost in speed, too, that Sandy had as it neared shore, accelerating to 28 mph. Paciente explained to me that in our part of the world – sa atin 26 degrees celsius or more ang sea surface temperature sa Pacific para bumuo ng typhoon. No wonder the rise in deadly storms has been blamed on the rise of sea temperature which in turn has been blamed on climate change, I told him. Paciente added that it is not just the temperature at sea that helps bring about storms, but also the temperature of our surroundings and in fact the “earth temperature.” There will inevitably be scientists on opposing sides who will make or break the connection between Sandy and climate change. Former President George W. Bush had refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol that would force the US to reduce greenhouse gas emissions according to a set timetable. Bush said it would cost the US economy too much. Sandy is about to cost the US billions of dollars.

Still, the jury will continue to be out on whether Sandy will make the US think long and hard about seriously taking up measures to reduce greenhouse gases. In closing, I want to quote the lead paragraph of the Seattle Times news story. It said: Hurricane Sandy seems straight out of the latest Hollywood apocalyptic blockbuster. If Sandy is indeed apocalyptic, what does it say about the Philippine situation. We not only regularly have storms like Sandy, once in awhile we have stronger ones. On top of that we have earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. But we do have lovely islands formed eons ago by the violence of the earth. We have in short a Garden of Paradise in Hell. Life is really more fun in the Philippines. Meanwhile, to my kababayans living along the path of Sandy, take care. Back here, Paciente said the Philippines has five more storms coming before yearend of varying intensity. He said the weather bureau has no way of predicting any of them might be like Sandy. On the average, the Philippines has 20 storms a year. In comparison, the Atlantic Coast of the US has been affected by as many as 16 storms of varying intensity a year, striking between June and end-November.

Hurricane Sandy menaces U.S. after slamming Cuba | Reuters Thu Oct 25, 2012 | 7:34 PM EDT Hurricane Sandy menaces U.S. after slamming Cuba By Jeff Franks | HAVANA HAVANA Hurricane Sandy swelled into a major threat to much of the U.S. East Coast on Thursday after lashing Cuba with heavy rains and tree-toppling winds and swirling through the Bahamas, U.S. forecasters said. Strengthening rapidly after tearing into Jamaica and crossing the warm Caribbean Sea, Sandy hit southeastern Cuba early on Thursday with top sustained winds up to 110 miles per hour that left a trail of destruction, especially in the historic city of Santiago de Cuba. Images on Cuban television showed downed trees, damaged buildings and debris-clogged streets in the communist-ruled island's second largest city, which suffered a direct hit when the storm came ashore in the early morning hours. "Everything's destroyed in Santiago. People are going to have to work very hard to recover," Alexis Manduley, a resident of the 498-year-old city, told Reuters by telephone.

According to one Cuban radio report from the city of 500,000 people, about 470 miles southeast of Havana, at least one person was killed in Santiago, bringing the Sandy-related death toll to at least three, including fatalities in Jamaica and Haiti. U.S. government forecasters warned that much of the U.S. East Coast could get swiped by Sandy, with flooding, heavy rains and high winds beginning late Thursday in Florida. By early next week - amid final preparations for the crucial November 6 presidential election - the storm could hit an area of New England where Hurricane Irene caused severe damage last year. White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to speculate about whether there would be any change in President Barack Obama's campaign travel schedule because of Sandy, as he makes a last-minute blitz to win an edge over Republican Mitt Romney in a close race. "The president's concern about this storm is to make sure that citizens in potentially affected areas are aware of this and taking necessary precaution," Carney said. He spoke aboard Air Force One as Obama headed from Florida to Virginia, saying the president had asked his team to hold regular briefings with federal disaster officials as the storm progresses.

Forecasters said the hardest-hit areas could span anywhere from the coastal Carolinas up to Maine, with New York City and the Boston area potentially in harm's way. "Regardless of the exact track of Sandy, it is likely that significant impacts will be felt over portions of the U.S. East Coast through the weekend and into early next week," the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said. "FRANKENSTORM" "It's going to be a high-impact event," said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's HydroMeteorological Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. "It has the potential to be a very significant storm with respect to coastal flooding, depending on exactly where it comes in. Power outages are definitely a big threat," he said. In a subsequent report, NOAA's storm-prediction center suggested that Sandy could invite the ghoulish nickname "Frankenstorm," due to upcoming celebrations of Halloween and some of the freakish characteristics of the storm.

The late-season cyclone is widely expected to undergo an unusual merger with a polar air mass over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Tuesday, essentially bringing two sources of energy together and giving Sandy the potential to punch above its weight as it sloshes across the U.S. coast. At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), the NHC said Sandy was about 125 miles east-southeast of Nassau in the Bahamas and packing maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. It was still a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, but some weakening was expected over the next 48 hours as Sandy moved through the Bahamas island chain. High winds, rains and pounding surf are expected across parts of Florida's Atlantic coast, with the biggest impact lasting through Friday. Orange juice prices rose in U.S. trading on Thursday on speculative buying as investors bet that Sandy could damage crops in the citrus-rich Sunshine State. Unlike Irene, which caused billions of dollars in damage as it battered the Northeast in August last year, Sandy is forecast to drop below hurricane strength before making U.S. landfall.

But it will be moving slower than Irene did, likely bringing more rain and increasing its potential for damage, weather forecasters said. At $4.3 billion in losses, Irene ranks as one of the 10 costliest hurricanes, adjusted for inflation and excluding federally insured damage, according to the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group. "A BILLION-DOLLAR DISASTER" Jeff Masters, a hurricane specialist and blogger with private forecaster Weather Underground ( said a landfall by Sandy on Monday along the Mid-Atlantic Coast could trigger "a billion-dollar disaster." "In this scenario, Sandy would be able to bring sustained winds near hurricane force over a wide stretch of heavily populated coast," he said. Alternately, Masters said, some computer forecast models indicated Sandy had the potential to unleash "the heaviest October rains ever reported in the northeast U.S., Nova Scotia and New Brunswick." Oravec said there could be tropical-storm to hurricane-force winds on the coast and added: "Coastal flooding will be a big concern." On Long Island, in the southeast corner of the Bahamas island chain, Joel Friese, general manager of the Stella Maris Resort, said Sandy was fierce as she cut across the island Thursday afternoon.

"It was way stronger than we expected. The eye seems to have passed over a good portion of Long Island from south to north. We had winds of 100 mph from the east until the eye passed," he said by telephone. "There are lots of downed trees and partial to heavy roof damage on some of the buildings." Sandy is expected to hit the United States during a full moon, increasing the flood potential since tides will be at or near their highest. "There's a big potential for huge effects from the storm," said NOAA's Oravec. "We can't rule out the potential for snow eventually as we go into the week and the storm moves inland," he said. (Reporting by Jeff Franks and Nelson Acosta in Havana, Neil Hartnell in the Bahamas, Kevin Gray in Miami, Ben Berkowitz and Josephine Mason in New York; Writing by Tom Brown; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Philip Barbara) ADVERTISEMENT 1/8 A man looks at the city as storm clouds fill the sky over Havana October 24, 2012.

Hurricane Sandy battered Jamaica with ferocious winds, waves and rain on Wednesday, knocking down trees and power lines across the Caribbean country as it cut a path toward Cuba and the Bahamas. Reuters/Desmond Boylan + 2/8 Storm clouds fill the sky over Havana October 24, 2012. Hurricane Sandy battered Jamaica with ferocious winds, waves and rain on Wednesday, knocking down trees and power lines across the Caribbean country as it cut a path toward Cuba and the Bahamas. Reuters/Desmond Boylan + 3/8 A view of the Hope River as it begins to swell with rain from approaching Hurricane Sandy in Kingston October 24, 2012. Reuters/Gilbert Bellamy + 4/8 Jamaicans shelter themselves from the rain of approaching Hurricane Sandy as they walk along Sandy Park Gully in Kingston October 24, 2012. Reuters/Gilbert Bellamy + 5/8 A view of houses along the Hope River as it begins to swell with rain from approaching Hurricane Sandy in Kingston October 24, 2012. Reuters/Gilbert Bellamy +

Question: What was the name of the hurricane that battered New York in October 2012?
Answer: Hurricane Sandy