Hurricane Sandy came ashore near Atlantic City, New Jersey, pushing a record storm surge into New York Harbour that flooded lower Manhattan, the subway system and low-lying districts in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
More than eight million customers lost electricity across the northeastern United States, and damage estimates exceeded $60bn. Fires destroyed more than a hundred homes in the Breezy Point neighbourhood of Queens.
The storm prompted New York to commission large-scale coastal resilience plans and became a reference point in American debate about climate adaptation for major cities.
