In the face of a disaster on the scale of Hurricane Sandy, it can be difficult to wrap one’s mind around the enormity of what we’re dealing with. There are, of course, the pictures and personal stories that can offer a glimpse into the experiences of individuals, but as numbers people, we find that the statistics really drive home the magnitude of what we’re looking at.
We scoured every “by the numbers” story we could find, gathering the stats here in one place to show just how immense this storm is:
1,000 miles – total diameter of the storm.
500 miles – distance from Sandy’s center experiencing tropical storm-level winds.
90 mph – speed of sustained winds experienced in some areas.
28 mph – speed the storm moved through the affected areas.
940 millibars – record low barometric pressure reading for the Northeast US.
9 – states impacted.
10,000 – flights canceled through Tuesday, though many more cancellations are expected.
455,000 – people told to evacuate New York City, Atlantic City, and Delaware.
1.1 million – New York City students affected by school closure.
3.1 million – customers who lost power, mostly in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
10 million – people without public transport service on Monday.
50 to 60 million – people who will be directly affected by the storm.
490,000 – meals prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, along with more than 150,000 gallons of water.
12 inches – rainfall experienced in hardest-hit areas.
11 feet – storm surge experienced by hardest-hit areas.
50 feet – height of the tallest third of waves produced by the storm.
660 – miles of subway track closed in New York City.
$2.5 to $3 billion – FEMA’s estimate of the potential wind damage from the storm.
284,000 – residential properties at risk for damage from the storm.
$88 billion – the value of those homes at risk for damage.
12 – casinos in Atlantic City that have shut down.
10 – pictures uploaded to photo-sharing app Instagram every second using related hashtags (including #hurricanesandy, #sandy and #frankenstorm) during the storm.
27 – years since the last weather-related closure of the New York Stock Exchange.
124 – years since the New York Stock Exchange closed 2 days in a row for weather.
Over 1.1 million – Twitter mentions of “hurricane” since 4pm Monday.
The final tally, and the lasting effects of this storm – both economic and personal – are still to be determined.
Sources:
Dr. Jeff Masters’ Wunderblog (PS: If you aren’t following Dr. Masters’ blog for weather-related news, you’re doing it wrong.)
November 19, 2013
My brother recommended I might like this web site. He was totally right.
This post truly made my day. You can not imagine simply how
much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!