Photo Courtesy of Gov. Chris Christie's Office

Washed Out: Gov. Chris Christie vows to rebuild N.J.'s tourism trade, which is a staple of towns devastated by Sandy, including Seaside Heights.

Photo by Patrick Cashin/MTA

New Ride: MTA sets up temporary service in the devastated the Rockaways.

Sandy’s N.Y.-N.J. Wrath Tallies About $62.8B

Immediately after Superstorm Sandy hit, N.Y. and N.J. officials said damage estimates would be staggering, but now they have tallied preliminary costs showing just how formidable the storm was. The combined total damage estimate for both states is about $62.8 billion, according to official reports.

N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, citing a study with local government officials and private firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers and the PFM Group, estimates that repair work and response to the storm cost New York State $32.8 billion, and he anticipates a further $9.1 billion in mitigation and prevention costs. N.J. Gov. Chris Christie says that a preliminary analysis of the storm’s damage to the state puts the total cost at $29.4 billion.

“The devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy is of unprecedented proportions, ranking among the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history in terms of loss of life, property damage and economic impact,” Cuomo said in a Nov. 26 statement.
Gov. Christie said in a Nov. 23 statement that he would “spare no effort and waste no time” in rebuilding the state’s tourism industry as well as transportation and utility infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy estimates damage costs so far at about $360 million, according to a recent Associated Press article.

New York City

Stalled Projects on the Rise

The number of stalled construction sites in New York City has risen 17% to 691 from February to November, “erasing virtually all of the progress made in the prior 15 months,” according to a recent New York Building Congress (NYBC) analysis of New York City Dept. of Buildings (DOB) inspection records. Some 26% of the stalled projects were added to the list this year, NYBC says.

“While it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what happened, it is worth noting that the upturn in stalled sites roughly coincided with a
period of rather steep declines in the stock market as well as a growing uncertainty about the state of the world economy,” Dick Anderson, NYBC president, said in a statement.