newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Hurricane Sandy has come and gone, but the storm’s numbers are still coming in from its march of destruction across the East Coast.

Early estimates indicate that the storm caused between $10 billion and possibly $50 billion in overall damages. The $50 billion figure would make Sandy the second-costliest storm in U.S. history behind No. 1, Hurricane Katrina, according to weather.com. Katrina’s numbers were over $100 billion.

Snow totals reported were 34 inches in Mount Le Conte, Tennessee on Wednesday, while Clayton, West Virginia saw 33 inches of snow, and as much as 29 inches fell in Redhouse, Maryland. Many other locations in West Virginia and Maryland got 2 feet of snow or higher.

According to the New York Daily News, officials in New York said 19 people were killed by Sandy, and the city’s damage was estimated at $20 billion, double that of Hurricane Irene.

And New York’s subways are flooded to their highest levels in their 108-year history, according to Metropolitan Transit Authority, Joseph J. Lhota. The flooding has completely filled seven subway stations and some rail yards.

Lhota said, according to celebuzz.com, that the flooding was “worse” than his “worst case scenario.”

“Our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now,” he said.

Also, a 168-foot water tanker ran aground in Staten Island, and 200 patients had to be evacuated from NYU Langone Medical Center when backup generators failed to operate.

And an Associated Press story on ADN.com reports that in North Jersey, a tidal surge caused water to overflow a riverbank and swamp Moonachie and Little Ferry. Hundreds of stranded people were rescued through the night, but the body of one man was recovered from the Hackensack River.