1. HURRICANE SANDY EFFECT ON SUFFOLK COUNTY: POPULATION AND INCOME
Figure 2:Population change in five year incumbents from and
Figure 3: Change in Per Capita Income in five year increments and
Figure 1: Houses flooded from 1 to 4 feet on the first floor during super storm Sandy
Introduction: In 2012 Super Storm Sandy Barreled its way across the northeastern coast and caused between USD 78 and 97 billion in direct economic losses(Kunz et al). I decided to look at the effects this super storm had on Suffolk Country, NY because “on Long Island, the storm surge was most extreme(Kunz et al). To study how Suffolk Country was effected I looked at houses flooded 1 to 4 feet, Population change, and Per Capita Income change in the county.
Methods: Spreadsheet data was taken Social Explorer to find population and Per Capita Income from and This data was added to a Tiger line file from the U.S Census Bureau to create borders. Severity of flooding Shapefile data was taken from the HUD and organized by quantity.
Conclusion: Suffolk County was one of the most effected areas in NY from devastation caused by super storm Sandy. Nearly 72,992 homes where damaged by water alone displacing thousands of family's. This did slightly effect population in Suffolk Country though it had the opposite effect on Per Capita Income. This issue has been studied by individuals in many disciplines including economics, ecologist and oceanology.
Results: Many houses in Suffolk Country where negatively effected by flooding from Sandy, though this did not necessarily cause a population change and did not cause a decrease in income. Although a majority of Suffolk County did see a decrease in population this decrease was only .03 for a majority of boundaries. Per Capita income was positive for a majority of Suffolk County except for areas which saw a population increase.
Data: The storm surge from Sandy broke 8 FEMA 100 year base flood elevation records throughout Long Island(USGS) and flooded 72,992 houses within Suffolk County by 4 Feet. Damages are estimated to cost over $19 billion USD and house values have decreased 17-19% (Ortega and Taspimar 1).
Bibliography:
[Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].
[Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].
Kunz, M., Mühr, B., Kunz-Plapp, T., Daniell, J., Khazai, B., Wenzel, F., Vannieuwenhuyse, M., Comes, T., Elmer, F., Schröter, K., Fohringer, J., Münzberg, T., Lucas, C. and Zschau, J. (2013). Investigation of superstorm Sandy 2012 in a multi-disciplinary approach. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, [online] 1(2), pp Available at: [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
Ortega, F. and Taspinar, S. (2017). Rising Sea Levels and Sinking Property Values: The Effects of Hurricane Sandy on New York's Housing Market. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Author: Tyde Hilderbrandt