Hurricane Sandy, the second-largest Atlantic storm on record, affected the East

Coast from Florida to Maine, as well as states as far inland as West Virginia,
Ohio, and Indiana. The storm made landfall in southern New Jersey on October
29, 2012, battering the densely populated New York and New Jersey region
with heavy rains, strong winds, and record storm surges, and with heavy
snowfall in West Virginia and the Appalachian Mountains. The storms effects
were extensive, over 23,000 people sought refuge in temporary shelters, and
over 8.5 million customers were left without power, causing widespread flooding
throughout the region, in numerous roads and tunnels and blocked
transportation corridors, and contributing to acute fuel shortages in parts of New
York and New Jersey. The storm damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands
of homes, caused tens of billions of dollars in damages, and killed at least 162
people in the United States.
Sandy was the 18th named storm of the 2012 Hurricane Season and the 10th
hurricane. The storm formed in the southwestern Caribbean Sea on October 22
and became a hurricane two days later. After passing through Cuba as a
Category 2 hurricane on October 25, Sandy weakened to a Category 1
hurricane and moved north over the Atlantic Ocean, parallel to the southeastern
United States. As the storm moved north, it merged with an arctic cold front.
This steered it to the northwest and gave Sandy its extremely broad wind field.
The storm produced severe flooding along the Atlantic Coast, blizzard-like
conditions in the Appalachian Mountains (with more than two feet of snow in
areas of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina), and extreme
winds and localized flooding in the coastal areas of the Great Lakes.
On the morning of October 29, the combination of a high-pressure pattern over
New England and a midlevel trough moving east from the Midwest redirected
the storms trajectory toward southern New Jersey. Sandy made landfall later
that evening near Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a post-tropical cyclone with
hurricane-force winds of up to 80 miles per hour. The storm weakened as it
moved west across southern Pennsylvania on October 30. By November 1,
most of the wind and rains from the storms remnants had diminished across
the affected states.
With tropical stormforce winds extending 580 miles from the center, Sandy
was the second-largest Atlantic storm on record. The storm affected the East
Coast from Florida to Maine, as well as states as far inland as West Virginia,
Ohio, and Indiana. Sandy particularly lashed the New York and New Jersey
coasts with heavy rain, winds, and a record storm tide that approached 14 feet
in some areas. The storms impact was intensified because it made landfall in
the most populated region of the countrya region that includes critical
infrastructure vital to the Nations economy. Sandy caused nearly $50 billion in
property damage.

The President authorized major disaster declarations for 12 states and the
District of Columbia, providing affected counties with assistance for emergency
work and debris removal, as well as access to three programs that continue to
help survivors and communities recover from Sandy.