Factoids: "Hurricane Sandy"

On the road today, reading the news from Pensacola over breakfast. Once again, the weather is making front page, lead-story, headline news. Here's what USA Today's Monday morning edition has to say about Hurricane Sandy:

• Sandy is the biggest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, more than twice the size of Hurricane Irene, with clouds extending some 2,000 miles from Canada to Florida.
• The rain that is forecast to fall in some Mid-Atlantic state areas would be expected to occur once every 500 to 1,000 years.
• Blizzard warnings have been issued for higher elevations of the Appalachians, and could bring as much as two feet of snow to VA, WV, KY, and NC. 
• Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been ordered to leave their homes for higher ground. 
• Sandy has already killed more than 60 people in the Caribbean. 
• Sandy could directly affect up to 60 Million Americans. 
• Forecasters expect this "superstorm" to be felt as far inland as Chicago and the Great Lakes; the National Weather Service is warning of waves 20 to 25 feet on Lake Michigan by Tuesday. 
• High winds currently extend more than 500 miles from Sandy's center. 
• Sandy's destructive potential is rated 5.8 on a scale of 0 to 6, by the NOAA.

2012's Sandy more than 2x the size of 2011's Irene. 

Sandy's Economics

Most commerce along the Eastern seaboard is shutdown until further notice. For example: 

• All schools, freight carriers, mass transit, trains and subways are shutdown in heavily populated areas such as New York City, Washington D.C. and Phildelphia, until further notice. 
• The New York Stock Exchange has canceled trading for Monday and Tuesday. 
• Experts say flooding in New York's subway system cannot be prevented; subways stopped running Sunday morning. 
• More than 6,800 flights had been canceled by Sunday evening. 
• Meteorologist Mike Williams of AccuWeather said damage, including losses, could top $100 Billion, "far worse than Katrina."

Page 3A, USA Today print edition, 10/29/12. 

For more basic info on Global Warming and what it's projected outcomes might be i recommend clicking around on Environmental Defense Fund's info page or digging deeper into any of several environmentalist's books; Lester Brown's Eco-Economy comes to mind as a good starting place. Write me if you're interested in more book recommendations.

Young people prepare for the storm surge;
from USAToday.com.