On this day, October the 29th, in the year of 2012, Hurricane Sandy (also known as Superstrom Sandy) made landfall in the United States.

Before making landfall in the U.S., the hurricane had a unique life cycle. Beginning off of the coast of Nicaragua, it moved over the island nations of Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, killing a half of a hundred people in Haiti.

As it moved along, it weakened over Cuba and Puerto Rico, eventually turning into a tropical depression when it neared the Bahamas. Though, after it passed the Bahamas, the storm stretched back to a Category 1 hurricane, but measured 100 miles long.

Before it made landfall, it merged with another storm, only strengthened by a moving cold front, with the storm’s effects now being felt more than 1,000 miles away. Piled on top of the already robust storm, a full moon made the storm surge to come to become more severe.

As it neared the New Jerseys shoreline, the cold front made the storm lose the classification of hurricane, but still retained its freakish nature. Due to this, the storm was dubbed a “Superstorm” as to not lessen its severity to the eyes of the public.

Making landfall around Brigantine, New Jersey, the storm left its mark in many areas in its path.

In the New Jersey/New York region, millions were left without power for multiple days, destroyed thousands of homes and structures along New Jerseys and New York’s shorelines, many city environments were flooded, leading to flooded subway tunnels.

When the dust settled, the storm was the fourth most expensive in the history of the United States, led to the death of around 125 Americans, changed how houses were built in at-risk areas, and highlighted the growing threat of climate change, still shaping the affected regions climate policy to today (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) (National Geographic) (CNN) (City of New York) (Washington Post).