Recent Powerful Storms like Hurricane Irene and Sandy and How they Rank

Another October, another storm. I was wondering - in the dark, as my power was out again - which storm was the worst? We've had some real bad ones in the past year, so I thought I'd try to look at some local statistics with them, and perhaps some national ones.

 

Here's how they stack up.

 

 

 

Storm

Hurricane Irene

Snowtober

Hurricane Sandy

Power Outage (MA)

~400,000

420,000

300,000 (estimate)

Power Outage (national)

 

3,330,000

8 million

Snow

No

1 foot-3 feet locally

Not locally

Flooding

yes! - 5 to 8 inches of rain in a few hours

No

Not in MA, but NJ and lower Manhattan were flooded.

Fatalities

47

39 (wikipdedia)

18

Notes

15.6 billion in damage in the US. Vermont was probably the most devastated new england state. Boston was spared the brunt of the storm, leading many folks to say it was overhyped. Those in the central and Western part of the state were without power for several days to a week.

With all the leaves still on the trees,and a heavy wet snow, it was a disaster for tree limbs and power problems.

The wind was pretty impressive, but looks like NY/NJ are getting the worst of this one.

 

 

 

 

So Which do you think had the greatest impact locally?