Hurricane Sandy, US Government Response, Recovery and Preparedness

About Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy was one of the most destructive and deadliest hurricanes ever in the United States of America History. It became the largest Atlantic hurricane in the records as the estimates of its damage released in 2015 was about 75 billion Us dollars and at least 233 people killed by the storm along its path in eight countries. Hurricane sandy developed from a tropical wave in a region within west Caribbean Sea where it quickly became strong and it was upgraded to Tropical sandy storm after six hours. It slowly moved northward were it later intensified. On October 24 it became a hurricane were it made a landfall near Kingston, Jamaica. It emerged again few hours later in the Caribbean Sea where it strengthened in to the category 2 hurricane and on October 25, it hit Cuba as category 3 hurricanes before weakening in to category 1 hurricane. It moved through Bahamas on October 26 and on October 27, it weakened in to a Tropical storm and then re strengthened again into a category 1 hurricane.

Read also A Review Of Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane sandy left almost 70% of Jamaica without power, killed one and blew house roofs along with other damage. It moved through Haiti and Dominican Republic were it caused a lot of damage and killing of people. It caused deaths in Puerto Rico, Bahamas and also in Canada where two people were left dead and a lot of property was destroyed (Shelton, Taylor & et al, 2014).

In United States of America, Sandy affected 24 states. The entire eastern seaboard was affected from Florida to Maine and also the west across Michigan and Wisconsin causing severe damage in New York and New Jersey. The storm hit New York City on October 29 were streets were flooded; tunnels and subways were also destroyed. Between October 22 and October 29, 2012 Hurricane Sandy was responsible for at least 147 deaths in the North East United States, Caribbean and Canada.

Several Organizations had to intervene and contribute towards the hurricane relief effort. The World Food Program and the United Nations send humanitarian aid to people in Santiago de Cuba and on December 3, 2012, the concert for Sandy relief was announced which was going to take place on 12^th December, 2012 in New York City which was aimed to reach over one billion people around the globe. It featured big artists and was aired by various television channels in United States and also internationally for four hours. On December 28, 2012, the United States Senate approved a bill for emergency relief which was to help provide for the states affected by Hurricane Sandy (Chan, Faith Ka Shun & et al, 2014).

Response by US Government to the Hurricane Sandy

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the government responded putting aside more than 60 billion US dollars in total emergency spending. The need of emergency spending has increased due to the increase in the volume of disaster declarations which are being issued by the Federal Emergency Federation Agency over the past two decades or so. Each declaration which has been issued has drained the Disaster Relief Fund which is indented for such emergencies that largely overwhelm the state resources. As the declarations issued increases, the more and faster the Disaster Relief Fund needs to be replenished.

At the direction of the President Barrack Obama, Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to stay in the front line in assisting the government and supporting the states affected by Hurricane Sandy. It ensures that the federal family together with its private and public partners takes part in continued provision of the available resources in supporting the state, tribal and also local communities in areas which were affected (Guikema, Seth David & et al, 2014).

Recovery operations by the US Government after Hurricane Sandy

Housing was greatly affected due to the widespread impact of Hurricane Sandy. Federal Emergency Management Agency formed the Hurricane Sandy Catastrophic Disaster Housing Task Force on November 6, 2012 which was to address the housing issues in support by the government and field operations. It continues in developing guidance and giving options based on the Catastrophic Housing Annex.

Federal Emergency Management Agency continuous to work closely with the community as a whole, the state, the local and the tribal government partners as the response and recovery efforts are needed. It recognizes that people must look at the local, tribal and state leadership and also the community as a whole to ensure that it provides disaster survivors with the assistance required in their road to recovery.

The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program helps to implement long term calamity mitigation measures. Funding was also made available aimed to implement projects in accordance with the state, local and tribal priorities. It provides funding which is aimed to be used in funding projects which will eliminate or reduce the losses from future disasters (Jabareen & Yosef, 2015).

Preparedness by New York City in case of another Hurricane Sandy

After Hurricane Sandy destroyed large parts of New York City, New Jersey and other parts along the East Coast, the region has come up with strategies aimed to improve its storm water capacity management. The Federal Government gave 4million US dollars for the New York to recover and rebuild its transportation systems. Some new projects which included flood barriers, two new pump trains, water resistance submarine cable and also tunnel improvements. However, this does not mean that the city is ready for another storm like Hurricane Sandy. A warning has been issued about the New York infrastructure which had been termed as fragile before Sandy occurred. Even after the upgrades, most of the Metropolitan Transport Authority operations and facilities remain vulnerable (Rosenzweig, Cynthia, & William Solecki, 2014).

Research has indicated that no person in New York City who is really prepared for the major wind event although USA could be facing Category 3 or 4 of hurricanes as debris from broken windows, sites being constructed and even cranes would be really dangerous. Improvements are far from sufficient as the hurricane helped people to realize the infrastructure challenges facing the East Coast.

Back in March 2013 New Jersey Natural Gas Board urged all the state’s utilities to come up with plans and proposals which would help and put people in better position to deal with these issues in case there was another Sandy incident. Projects which are aimed at improving the stability, redundancy, integrity and safety have been approved and this puts the region in a better position to deal with another Hurricane Sandy.

Few voices from the worlds of climate science and planning have called for a drastically approach which is different something they term as managed retreat. This aims at creating a plan for pulling back from the waters in case the time comes. These include strategies on ways of moving people and were they should be moved. It deals with the inevitable tensions over equity concerning who has to go and who has to stay. This approach is a radical idea and few politicians have the courage and the capital to float it leave a lone executing it.

The New York City large and growing population may pose a challenge in relocation plan and also the severe affordability crisis which is making it hard for the working class people to survive in five boroughs making such shifts downright scary. It is much wise to think as urban dwellers have done in past that the New York has to look for a way to outsmart nature (Artigas, Francisco & et al, 2016).

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