Hurricane Sandy was expected to be one of the worst hurricanes in New York’s history in over a hundred years. The effects of hurricane Sandy are going to affect people both physically but mentally and all around the country in the long run.

Before the storm even hit, the city of New York shut down all public transportation and the stock market. The New York Stock Exchange was shut down for the first time due to weather-related reasons since 1888. In fact, after 9/11, it was closed for four days. Also all public transportation was shut down, no taxis, no subways, no buses, no way for a commuter to get to work.

In result of this, people had to hunker down and wait out the storm because there is nothing anyone can really do in a hurricane.

Many attempted to prepare as much as they could for the hurricane to preserve personal items. In addition, people lined their house with sand bags to prevent as much water from coming in as possible.

New Jersey Governor, Chris Christine said, “We want to prepare people for the worst.” They wanted people to be aware that they could be without power for more than a week.

Christine urged people in Hurricane Sandy’s path to, “remain calm and listen to directions.”

Prior to the hurricane, tens of thousands of people in coastal areas were ordered to evacuate their homes before Sandy pounded the eastern third of the United States. States of emergency were declared from North Carolina to Connecticut.

Soon enough,Sandy hit. People braced themselves for the worst, not expecting what kind of damage was going to happen.

During the storm, Sandy met up with a cold front coming from the northwest and a high pressure system from Greenland, fueling it with enough energy to make it more powerful than the so-called “Perfect Storm” in 1991.

Because it is a hurricane,Sandy came from the ocean. It generated waves up to 20 to 25 feet on the south side of Lake Michigan for three days in a row. Along with the beach erosion and flooding especially southeast or Chicago around Gary,Indiana, and Michigan City with waves there as high as 33 feet.

Business and schools, roads, bridges, and tunnels were all closed, and more than 13,000 flights were canceled. No one was going anywhere.

After Sandy passed over, and people were able to go outside and see what damage was done. Most people were expecting the worse, but no one could have imagined that Sandy would cause this much damage.

New Jersey longtime resident, David Arnold was quoted in the New York Times for saying, “It’s the worst I’ve seen,” said Arnold, watching the storm from his longtime home in Long Branch,N.J.“The ocean is in the road, there are trees down everywhere. I’ve never seen it this bad.”

The wind–driven rain piled over sea walls and protective barriers in places like Atlantic City, where the Boardwalk was severely damaged as water forced its way inland.

Imagine, a family vacation spot at the beach, like the Santa Cruz boardwalk, being washed away into the ocean by a hurricane. In Seaside Heights,New Jersey, at the boardwalk, there were roller coasters in the ocean. Sea foam was everywhere, and the sand gave in to the waves along the beach in Sandy Hook,New Jersey.

Even the underground subway stations were filled with water. There were also trees brought down over the tracks and ripped out power lines. The New York City subway system is 108 years old and has never faced a disaster as devastating as the damage hurricane Sandy has brought.

The devastation that hurricane Sandy has brought not only effects the East coast, but the entire country. Having the New York Stock Exchange, affects the stock market.

Even gas prices are plummeting. Gas prices are lower now than they were before they started rising to extreme prices.

There has even been accidents that have claimed more than 40 lives. This includes 22 people from New York City. Two boys, an 11 year-old Little League star and his 13 year-old friend were killed when a 90 foot-tall tree smashed into the family room of a house in North Salem, New York. An off-duty police officer who led seven relatives, including a 15 year-old boy, to safety in the storm, drowned when he went to check on the basement.

HurricaneSandyhas brought great devastation to people all over the country, especially residents inNew York Cityarea and most ofNew Jersey, but our country is made up of helpful and caring people and the people of the United Stat