Sandy Snapshot: A Look Back at Hurricane's Fallout

Hurricane Sandy Debris Breezy Point — This image shows Hurricane Sandy debris and parts of destroyed houses in Breezy Point on Nov. 12, 2012 in the Queens, N.Y. (Image credit: MISHELLA / Shutterstock.com)

Sandy began as a hurricane in the Caribbean and moved up the U.S. east coast. It gradually weakened in the Atlantic, but as it moved west from New Jersey it collided with a low-pressure system and an unseasonably early winter storm. This phenomenon was so unusual it needed a new name: superstorm. Sandy made landfall on Oct. 29, 2012, sending floodwaters pouring across the densely populated barrier islands of Long Island and the Jersey shore, including Breezy Point in the Rockaways, Queens (shown here). A year later, many residents of the oceanfront area are still trying to rebuild from the billions of dollars in damage.

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Nina Sen is a frequent contributor to Live Science’s Life’s Little Mysteries series: an exploration and explanation of our world’s phenomena, both natural and man-made. She also writes astronomy photo stories for Live Science's sister site Space.com.