Streets are flooded, electricity is out, and some neighborhoods are completely washed away as the Megastorm called Sandy led a destructive path into the New Jersey shore on the East Coast of the US. The recent economic costs of this storm is estimated to be $50 billion and counting. The unique nature of the storm and the combination of a strong storm surge has made way for huge amounts of damage in many areas along the East Coast. Two factors for such a cost: loss of economic business activity (stocks were also shut down) and damages to uninsured property losses. Meteorologists report most of the damage was done because of the powerful storm surge. The storm, combined with a full moon brought huge storm surges to the coastlines even though Sandy was a category 2 hurricane when it hit. Damages are high even for a developed country like the US, however they are already calling this close or equivalent to the perfect storm that hit Massachussetts decades ago. Sandy had all the right ingredients to have an impact that it did. The recovery will be a long process and not everything will be rebuilt. If New Jersey were to rebuild its coastline with better storm surge protection, it would mitigate the impact of another storm of similar magnitude. Also important is the high population area that was in the path of Sandy. It affected people as far inland as the west Lake Michigan shoreline in Wisconsin.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49622885
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