Summary
Hurricane Sandy caused major coastal flooding and storm surge in New York & New Jersey, collapsing energy, transport, and telecom networks simultaneously.
Systemic Features
- Infrastructure design assumptions exceeded by climate-driven storm surge
- Cascading dependency across energy → telecoms → hospitals → fuel logistics
- Dense megacity environment amplified systemic disruption
Cascading Systems Affected
- Subways, tunnels, bridges, road networks
- Power grid (8 million customers lost power)
- Water, sewage, pumping systems
- Fuel distribution crisis caused by logistics and power failures
Impacts
- 233 fatalities, widespread displacement
- Billions in economic losses and long-term coastal adaptation policy changes