Hurricane Sandy: “A Perfect Storm?”

Fall 2012 -

Atlantic City’s streets were left flowing like rivers, millions were left without power, and winds of over 80 mph caused devastation for many East-coasters. Hurricane Sandy is what some might call “a perfect storm,” not only affecting people’s homes, but causing a political stir as well.

Meteorologists say Sandy may have created such a dangerous, widespread storm as a result of a collision with arctic air. This collision also produced snowstorms in Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland.

Some are blaming this tragic storm on weather factors, but researchers are still looking at global warming as a contributing factor in Hurricane Sandy as well. The warmer ocean surfaces caused warmer air above the oceans, resulting in the ocean air holding about four percent more moisture than it has in past years. Experts estimate that this could have contributed to the treacherous storm, while others say that changes involving weather pressure may have caused Sandy.

Not only did Hurricane Sandy cause devastation to families and their homes, but it has also caused a lot of uproar with politics. Some candidates had no choice but to call off campaign events and in some areas, early voting options were shut down. On top of all that, many environmental groups are fed up, and for good reason. Some large fossil fuel companies are spending money on campaigning for the election rather than focusing on relief efforts for cases such as the disaster of Hurricane Sandy. If we don’t do something about this, storms in the future could have detrimental effects on our climate.

Sandy alone has left enough damage. The flood waters mixed together raw sewage, hazardous oil and industrial chemicals. This deadly trio could be very harmful to our environment, and we don’t want efforts for disaster relief to be overlooked. I hope everyone will be aware of all the suffering people of the East Coast have gone through, and join the effort to help keep our environment clean or risk other disasters.