Surveying the Destruction Caused by Hurricane Sandy

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Flooding in N.Y.C.
Regional damage
Oakwood STATEN ISLAND
Click to enlarge
In the days before the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, few people in New York City anticipated the scale of destruction of the storm. The map shows the estimated height reached by floodwaters, which topped 17 feet in some parts, according to surveys and weather data collected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Hurricane Sandy came at the New York metropolitan region directly, a frontal assault of wind and waves along hundreds of miles of the coast. More than 900 buildings were destroyed, and at least another 12,000 sustained major damage, according to initial estimates by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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Flood zone
Approximate area inundated by the storm
Building colors are the estimated peak water depth near building
6 to 18 feet
3 to 6
0 to 3
Building colors indicate severity of damage.
Destroyed
Major damage
By MATTHEW BLOCH, FORD FESSENDEN, ALAN McLEAN, ARCHIE TSE and DEREK WATKINS
Sources: Building damage data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, NOAA, the Civil Air Patrol and the U.S. Geological Survey (Nov. 21 estimates)
By MATTHEW BLOCH, ALAN McLEAN and ARCHIE TSE; reporting contributed by Joseph Berger, Cara Buckley, Sarah Maslin Nir, Kirk Semple and Vivian Yee
Sources: Flood areas and levels from the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Andrew A. Beveridge, socialexplorer.com; building shapes from NYC Open Data