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Remembering Superstorm Sandy On 4-Year Anniversary

Hurricane Sandy Anniversary
Hurricane Sandy 4-Year Anniversary

Few can forget the unforgiving winds, torrential rains, and mass flooding wrought by Hurricane Sandy as it infamously banked west in the early hours of Oct. 29, 2012, barreling into New Jersey, Long Island and New York City.

Dubbed a “superstorm” due to the apocalyptic atmospheric conditions spawning it—its massive size as the largest hurricane ever recorded, its merging with a wintry system, and its landfall during high tide on full moon—Sandy was the most destructive and deadliest hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic season and the second-costliest in U.S. history, only to Hurricane Katrina.

More than 230 people lost their lives during its lethal trek from the Caribbean up the East Coast of the United States, millions lost power, and Sandy’s total devastation stateside has been estimated at more than $70 billion.

Sandy swallowed entire neighborhoods whole. Breezy Point, the Rockaways, Lindenhurst, Freeport, the city of Long Beach—the list goes on and on.

On the South Shore of Long Island, the ocean rose by several feet, inundating homes, engulfing cars and literally washing away neighborhoods. Lashing winds whipped ferociously atop the sea, conjuring a wall of water slamming shoreline communities with the fury of a freight train, uprooting trees, shredding power lines, leveling homes and businesses and turning boats into missiles that hit structures with the terrific force of floating wrecking balls.

An estimated 100,000 homes and businesses were destroyed across Long Island—and some communities have still not recovered. In the days following the storm’s landfall, residents were forced to rummage through the wreckage to try and save whatever they could, while temperatures plummeted and a gas shortage crippled the region.

It’s impossible to quantify the sheer emotional and psychological torture Sandy rendered on communities obliterated in its path.

The following photographs serve as grim reminders of Superstorm Sandy’s unimaginable destruction across Long Island, and its long-lasting impact on countless families’ lives, on its somber, four-year anniversary.

HOMES WASHED AWAY

Sandy Anniversary Lindenhurst
A roof is all that remains of a home in Lindenhurst following Hurricane Sandy barreling ashore on Oct. 29, 2012. (Christopher Twarowski / Long Island Press)

BOATS CRASHED INTO HOUSES

Hurricane Sandy Anniversary
This scene from South Freeport is just one example of the sheer destruction Hurricane Sandy unleashed on Long Island. (Michael Conforti/Long Island Press)

BUSINESSES DESTROYED

Superstorm Sandy Anniversary
GUTTED: Fiore Bros. Fish Market on the Nautical Mile in Freeport was among the commercial casualties of Superstorm Sandy’s wrath after 66 years in business. (Photo by Kevin Kane)

RESIDENTS STRUGGLE WITH SUPERSTORM SANDY’S AFTERMATH ON LONG ISLAND’S SOUTH SHORE

DOWNED TELEPHONE AND POWER LINES

Hurricane Sandy Anniversary
Downed telephone and power lines, such as these on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa, were a common scene following Hurricane Sandy. (Christopher Twarowski/Long Island Press)

LOOTERS

Hurricane Sandy Anniversary
Residents of some communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy took to warning potential looters targeting affected and abandoned homes. (Christopher Twarowski / Long Island Press)

RUINS

Hurricane Sandy Anniversary
The Long Beach boardwalk was among the many structural casualties of Superstorm Sandy. (Photo by Joe Abate)

GAS SHORTAGES

Hurricane Sandy Anniversary
Hundreds of people swarmed a Hess gas station on Sunrise Highway in Lindenhurst on foot and by car Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 to get as much fuel as they could as temperatures continued to drop and more than 700,000 residents remained without heat or electricity one week after Hurricane Sandy wreaked devastation across the Northeast. It was a familiar scene across Long Island. (Christopher Twarowski / Long Island Press)