Hurricane Sandy was one of the most destructive tropical cyclones to ever strike the Caribbean and North America. It formed on the 22nd of October 2012 and moved through the Caribbean over the next week, building in strength as it did so. It then curved north-westwards and hit the East Coast of the United States, causing immense damage in the Tristate Area around New Jersey and New York City and further south in Pennsylvania. It dissipated reasonably quickly thereafter as it was absorbed into a separate subtropical storm on the 2nd of November after weakening considerably. Sandy was a Category 3 major hurricane, but it is often referred to as Superstorm Sandy on account of the devastation it caused and the breadth of area it hit, with major impact zones in the US, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Cuba and Haiti. The storm led to 254 recorded fatalities and caused approximately $70 billion dollars’ worth of damage. It also acted as a spur to further migration from Haiti and other locations to the United States.[1]
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Hurricane Sandy chronology of eventsHurricane Sandy chronology of events
Hurricane Sandy developed into a tropical storm in the Caribbean from the 22nd of October 2012 onwards. It began to form in the southern end of the Caribbean, just north of Panama, and then moved north directly over Jamaica and the eastern end of Cuba, skirting Haiti as well as it did so. The storm continued to head directly north, gathering strength as it passed over the Bahamas. It then veered eastwards, out towards the open Atlantic Ocean, and gathered strength as it did so. Then, towards the end of the first week of the storm’s progress it swung at an almost 90 degree angle back north-westwards. It consequently struck the United States on the 29th of October as a Category 3 hurricane. The main impact zone was the coastal region around New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania and New York. As is typical with tropical cyclones, the storm lost strength as it came in over land and it weakened as it continued to head north-westwards towards the Great Lakes. The hurricane dissipated into another storm on the 2nd of November.[2]
Sandy was one of the most destructive storms in the history of the United States. It also caused considerable damage to several Caribbean countries. 158 people lost their lives in the US, while there were also deaths in Cuba (11), Jamaica (2), Canada (2), the Bahamas (2) and several other places. 75 people were claimed by the hurricane in Haiti. The country on the western side of the island of Hispaniola was not hit as badly by Sandy as some other parts of the Caribbean, but this is a country that has suffered decades of crises and natural disasters and hundreds of thousands of people were living there at the time in refugee camps and substandard housing that offered little protection from the storm. The storm is also understood to have led to several hundred indirect deaths in the days and weeks that followed.[3]
The economic and infrastructural damage was also very considerable. Most of it is understood to have been inflicted on New York and New Jersey in the United States. In New York City, for instance, the subway system was flooded and millions of people in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens were left without power owing to the damage caused by the storm. Damage extended to other parts of the wider city like Staten Island and Long Island and in some instances ships were blown on shore. Federal aid packages were introduced by the government of Barack Obama to provide financial support to rebuild and get New York back running after one of the foremost disasters in the city’s history.[4]
Extent of migration associated with Hurricane SandyExtent of migration associated with Hurricane Sandy
Like all major hurricanes, Sandy led to a large amount of temporary migration and a smaller amount of more permanent migration. People in coastal communities across the Greater Antilles (e.g. Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti) sought to move out of the way of it, as did a considerable number of people in New Jersey in particular. Most moved back to their houses and began repairing whatever damage had occurred once the emergency had passed. However, more permanent migration occurred in Haiti, a country which has been rocked by numerous crises in modern times, from the political and economic issues attendant on the Duvalier dictatorships to severe flooding and numerous destructive hurricanes. This was further compounded by damage to the Haitian economy which caused food insecurity in the months after the storm and a cholera outbreak.[5] Over 33,000 Haitian families lost their homes and were displaced. Many left Haiti altogether, migrating to the neighboring Dominican Republic that occupied central and eastern Hispaniola or to places like the United States.[6]
Demographic impact of Hurricane SandyDemographic impact of Hurricane Sandy
The immediate demographic impact of Hurricane Sandy was in the deaths of 254 people in various parts of the Caribbean and the East Coast of North America. The storm and its aftermath added to the growth of the Haitian diaspora in places like the United States and the Dominican Republic.[7] There were other, more subtle changes in other locations. Some people became more reluctant to keep living in affected regions and to deal with the future threats of tropical storms like Sandy and associated land erosion. As a result, the number of households on the Jersey Shore has declined by 2.5% since Sandy.[8]
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See alsoSee also
Explore more about Hurricane SandyExplore more about Hurricane Sandy
- United States Obituary Index from OldNews.com records collection on MyHeritage
- U.S. City Directories records collection on MyHeritage
- U.S. Public Records Index records collection on MyHeritage
- New York Newspapers, 1806-2007 records collection on MyHeritage
- New York City, Marriages, 1950-2017 records collection on MyHeritage
- Pennsylvania, Lawrence County Index of Obituaries, 1871-2016 records collection on MyHeritage
- Pennsylvania Newspapers, 1795-2009 records collection on MyHeritage
- New Jersey Death Index, 1920-1929, 1949-2017 records collection on MyHeritage
References
- ↑ https://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/13/world/americas/hurricane-sandy-fast-facts/index.html
- ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/hurricane-sandy
- ↑ Kathryn Miles, Superstorm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy (New York, 2014).
- ↑ Rachel Meltzer, et al., ‘Localized commercial effects from natural disasters: The case of Hurricane Sandy and New York City’, in Regional Science and Urban Economics, Vol. 86 (January, 2021).
- ↑ http://labos.ulg.ac.be/hugo/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2017/11/The-State-of-Environmental-Migration-2013-32-32.pdf
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/02/aftermath-hurricane-sandy-haiti-disaster
- ↑ https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/haitian-immigrants-united-states-2022
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/magazine/new-jersey-shore.html