PENNSYLVANIA, USA — It has been ten years since Superstorm Sandy, and while the most severe damage was in New Jersey and New York, we felt the impacts in Pennsylvania for days and weeks after the storm hit. In Susquehanna County, an 8-year-old boy was killed while he was outside checking on his family's calves.
He was running back inside when a gust of wind brought down a tree, causing his fatal injuries. In Carbon County, a family of four using a generator was taken to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning. One of the victims later died.
But it was also a time when once again, the people of northeastern and central Pennsylvania came together to help their friends, neighbors, and strangers in other states — those victims harder hit in New York and New Jersey.
On November 2, 2012, the New York City Marathon, scheduled to take place that weekend, was canceled. It was the third year for WNEP's Ryan's Run campaign, which turned into Ryan's Recovery within hours of the announcement. Together, the Ryan's Recovery team set up four drop-off locations across northeastern and central Pennsylvania, filling two tractor-trailers with supplies for victims on Staten Island.
A man from Luzerne County also helped Sandy victims in New York City, collecting personal care and cleaning products for a New York shelter damaged in the storm.
And students at the University of Scranton started a collection for the victims of Sandy who were then hit by a nor'easter and a foot of snow a little more than a week later.
Hurricane Sandy was the 18th named storm, 10th hurricane, and 2nd major hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Sandy was a Category 3 storm at its peak intensity when it made landfall in Cuba. By the time Sandy was off the coast of the Northeast US, it was a Category 1-equivalent extratropical cyclone, causing most of its damage from there. And that is how the storm got the unofficial name, Superstorm Sandy.
The 10th anniversary of the storm is this weekend, and Newswatch 16 will take a look back at the events we covered and the stories we shared before, during, and after Superstorm Sandy. You can find that on WNEP+ beginning next Monday, October 31.
Watch stories about the Agnes Flood anniversary on YouTube.