Frankenstorm News

[carverman]

[QUOTE=Nemo2;151258]

Still, even if it was not the worse hurricane to hit the US in recent memory, and even if everyone knew this time it was coming and were somewhat prepared for it,
with population growth over the last 50 years on the eastern seaboard and gulf areas, future damage and loss of life "are to be expected" when these natural disasters occur.

I was surprised to hear about the other deaths... by electrocution, which is another side effect of these disastrous storms,
besides drowning or being hit by falling trees and objects.

[Nemo2]

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Galveston_hurricane

The Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on September 8, 1900 in the city of Galveston, Texas, in the United States.[1] It had estimated winds of 145 miles per hour (233 km/h) at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale.[2] It was the deadliest hurricane in US history, and the second costliest hurricane in US history based on the US dollar's 2005 value (to compare costs with those of Hurricane Katrina and others).

The hurricane caused great loss of life with the estimated death toll between 6,000 and 12,000 individuals

[nathan79]

What makes Sandy historic is the fact that it wasn't a hurricane when it made landfall. It had undergone extra-tropical transition. The only comparable storm in terms of strength and damage is the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, and that hit the west coast.

[Nemo2]

What makes Sandy historic is the fact that it wasn't a hurricane when it made landfall. It had undergone extra-tropical transition. The only comparable storm in terms of strength and damage is the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, and that hit the west coast.

AFAIK Sandy was downgraded, then reconfirmed as a hurricane shortly thereafter, and then perhaps re-downgraded about an hour before it made landfall in N.J.......so although it might not have been 'officially' a hurricane when it hit, it was right on the periphery.

[Toronto.gal]

After it landed, it was labelled 'post-tropical cyclone'. Prior to that, it was called a 'category 1 storm', aka the least powerful hurricane.

[nathan79]

Although technically correct, a regular category 1 hurricane would have been less damaging than post-tropical storm Sandy. Most category 1 hurricanes are compact and lose their strength quickly upon landfall. Sandy was extremely massive in size, and maintained it's strength by interacting with a cold front and an upper low over the east coast.

[carverman]

It also stirred up a huge tidal wave, although technically not a Tsunami, it was still a huge wall of water that took out a lot of the homes and beachfront property in NJ and Staten Island.
It was the massive size of it , which spanned over 1000km as seen from the satellite pictures. Now the area is going to get hit with their typical early winter nor'easter storm,
which may make recovery even more difficult.