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Superstorm Sandy report by National Hurricane Center

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It's quite clear that New Jersey took an extreme hit from superstorm Sandy, according to a National Hurricane Center report released today.

Here are some of the 157-page report's points, and I focus mainly on New Jersey:

- Preliminary U.S. damage estimates are close to $50 billion, making Sandy the second-costliest cyclone to hit the nation since 1900.

- Sandy killed at least 147 people in the Atlantic basin. Seventy-two died in mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.

- Sandy weakened somewhat and then made landfall as a post-tropical cyclone near Brigantine. But because of its tremendous size, Sandy drove a catastrophic storm surge into the New Jersey and New York coastlines.

- New Jersey almost certainly received sustained hurricane-force winds (at least 74 mph), but the winds are believed to have arrived after Sandy became an extratropical storm.

- The following water levels, as measured in feet above ground level, were prevalent along the coast due to the storm tide:
* Monmouth and Middlesex counties, 4 to 9 feet.
* Union and Hudson counties, 3 to 7 feet.
* Essex and Bergen counties, 2 to 4 feet.
* Ocean County, 3 to 5 feet.
* Atlantic, Burlington and Cape May counties, 2 to 4 feet.

- In New Jersey, water levels were highest along the northern portion of the Jersey Shore in Monmouth and Ocean counties, north of where Sandy made landfall. Barrier islands were almost totally inundated in some areas, and breached in some cases, because the storm surge and large ocean waves met rising waters from back bays such as Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbor.

- The U.S. Geological Survey found high-water marks of up to 4 to 5 feet above ground level in spots such as Sea Bright, Tuckerton, Seaside Park and Long Beach Island.

- Sandy’s storm surge, along with large, battering waves, devastated large portions of New Jersey and New York coasts. The extent of catastrophic damage along the New Jersey coast was unprecedented in the state’s history, with Monmouth and Ocean counties getting the brunt of the damage. Whole communities were inundated by water and sand, houses were washed from their foundations, boardwalks were dismantled or destroyed, cars were tossed about and boats were pushed well inland.

- Gov. Chris Christie's office estimates that 346,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed and 22,000 of those units were uninhabitable. Nearly 19,000 businesses in New Jersey sustained at least $250,000 in damage, with total business losses estimated at $8.3 billion.

- Power and gas line repairs are expected to cost roughly $1 billion, and it's estimated that repairs to waste, water and sewer services will cost about $3 billion.

- Damage estimates for the transit, road and bridge system in the New Jersey reached $2.9 billion.

- The fishing industry in the New Jersey and New York areas suffered heavy losses, with millions of dollars in damages to local docks, marinas, restaurants and fish processing plants. BoatUS estimated that Sandy destroyed more than 65,000 boats and caused about $650 million in marine-related damage in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Superstorm Sandy before it struck New Jersey on Oct. 29, 2012 (Source: NASA)


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