Hurricane sandy during late October caused unprecedented destruction and suffering to the citizens of United States either directly or indirectly. The cities of New Jersey and New York were terribly flooded causing the blockage in the sub way systems and problems of power cuts by bringing the life of the people to a stand still. The companies providing electricity took almost a week to reinstate the power supply to thousands of people. Even the public schools and offices remained closed for many days. Out of 50 people who died because of this incident, 22 of them were from New York City. All the utility and transport services like the buses, metros and other services required by common people in their day today life were deterred.
The areas which suffered the most were the low lying coastal areas like Connecticut where 3 people died because of heavy flooding and thousands of people in Old Saybrook were asked to pack up and vacate the area as soon as possible because of growing danger caused by the hurricane. The other places which were evacuated were Fairfeild, Branford and East Heaven. Department of emergency services and Public protection in Connecticut announced that everyone should stay away from flood and storm prone areas and provided the citizens with shelter and food facilities. Meanwhile, large number of citizens protected their homes and offices with hurricane shutters. The authorities also asked to make an immediate call on their help line numbers in case of any requirements or emergencies or if any danger is sensed.
Certain parts of Lewes were flooded even before Sandy arrived in the northern areas. Even certain parts in south faced a huge destruction like the high tides of the Rehoboth Beach swept over the dunes and left the sand, seashells and other debris polluting the entire boardwalk but fortunately the boardwalk was less damaged. It was observed that those buildings which had hurricane shutters on had lesser degree of damage compared to those which had no such protection. The Ocean city’s famous pier was brought down and shattered as the strong and speedy waves crashed over the dunes. Strong winds and heavy force of rains knocked down extremely giant trees in certain areas. A large tree on the Fort Davis Street in the District of Columbia caused huge destruction due to its drop down and its heavy weight. The mountainous regions in west saw snowfall along with heavy rains in some areas and the gust of winds ranged up to 45 mph. The Hoboken Path station was devastated by the rush of storm water through an elevator shaft. The explosion at Con Edison plant in Manhattan contributed to the lack of power supply to great extent.
As the flood water subsided in some areas like New Castle, Sussex and Kent countries, people started returning to their homes as most of the roads and highways were cleared up except for those which were still flooded with storm waters. It was then observed that houses and buildings with hurricane shutters had the articles and other stuff comparatively safe as compared to others that had all the stuff inside swept away and damaged by strong winds.
President Obama along with Governor Chris Christie had provided relief to the victims and other citizens affected due to various reasons related to the storm. They also made arrangements by taking the help of Search and Rescue Missions in different places to rescue people who were trapped because of polluted flood water.