Hurricane Sandy was much worse because of climate change, study finds

Wood and furnishings lie outside a private seaside residence January 17, 2013 damaged during Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways January 17, 2013 in the Queens borough of New York. | Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Just a few inches of human-driven sea level rise contributed to Hurricane Sandy’s devastation of the Northeastern US in 2012. Tens of thousands more people were affected, and more than $8 billion in damages incurred during the storm were a result of climate-induced sea level rise, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications.

That’s about 13 percent of the more than $62.5 billion total in damage that the superstorm created in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Because climate change pushed sea levels higher, floodwaters were able to creep further inland — bringing more destruction with them.

“Sea level rise raises the launchpad for every single coastal storm.”

This is the first study to put a dollar sign...

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