SUPERSTORM SANDY

OCTOBER 2010 - The Associated Press

THREE MAJOR WEATHER SYSTEMS, a hurricane among them, collided to create what media outlets and meteorologists dubbed a superstorm. Few could fathom how apt a title it would prove to be.

Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard's largest cities, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and setting off a cascade of fires and power outages due to a dangerous mix of high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet high. Thousands were without power for weeks, hundreds lost their homes, many lost their lives.

From the blackened streets of downtown Manhattan to the devastated coastline of the Jersey Shore and Long Island, Sandy challenged the greatness of a city and a region with nature's wrath.