NJ after Sandy: Resilient state bounced back, but recovery was uneven

A decade after Superstorm Sandy flooded streets and homes, causing destruction and hardship across New Jersey and New York, a study by researchers at New York University examining the long-term impact of the storm found the region was incredibly resilient but recovery was uneven.

In the report, “Ten Years After Superstorm Sandy: Charting a Region’s Recovery,” researchers at the Center for Public Health Disaster Science, part of NYU's School of Global Public Health, looked at the extent to which systems in the country’s largest metropolitan area were disrupted with lasting consequences in the decade after the storm.

In New Jersey, 38 people died in the storm, two million households lost power, and 346,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

But the study, which focused on 18 counties most affected, including Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Union in New Jersey, found minimal long-term effects.

“Systematically and structurally, this is an area that was well positioned to rebound after Sandy,” said David Abramson, clinical associate professor at NYU's School of Global Public Health and the report’s lead author. “But good fortune does not necessarily mean good planning. As much as we were fortunate that we were able to recover, there was a significant and substantial impact of Sandy on the region.”

Abramson attributed the area’s resilience to its considerable resources, effective governments and strong critical infrastructure.

After the storm, the federal government invested $26 billion into these 18 counties, money that is still being spent to rebuild.

But while the study found minimal large-scale effects in New Jersey and New York, the impact to individuals varied tremendously and recovery among different households was uneven.

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The researchers looked at 20 years of data, including unemployment numbers, poverty levels and hospitalizations to explore long-term trends and document recovery from the disaster, examining the population’s health, the regional economy, housing, education, and civic and social engagement.

The study found the storm had a small and short-lived effect on employment trends in the region. Both the housing market crash and recession in 2008 and more recently the COVID pandemic had caused greater economic impacts. The storm had a minimal effect on crime, voting and other aspects of social and civic life and a mixed effect on the region’s housing.

In the year following the storm, foreclosures increased. But over the next decade, home values in the coastal and urban areas most affected by Sandy rose by 50% — a greater rate than in the counties less affected by the storm.

Deaths caused by drugs, alcohol or suicide and preventable hospitalizations for conditions such as asthma and pneumonia were not impacted by the storm, the study found.

The report compared the lasting impact of Superstorm Sandy with that of Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey, and found more long-term disruptions, hardships, and poor health outcomes in Louisiana and Mississippi following Katrina.

Many people after Katrina were still displaced from their homes three years later. There was much more stability following Sandy, largely because many of those affected were middle class and had more resources to recover, said Alexis Merdjanoff, a clinical assistant professor at NYU School of Global Public Health and an author of the report.

Merdjanoff also contributed to the Sandy Child and Family Health study in 2015 and has continued to study post-disaster resilience of older adults in high-risk coastal areas.

That report found the storm took a toll on the mental health of New Jersey residents in its path, with more than one in four residents whose homes were damaged still experiencing emotional distress.

Merdjanoff spent the last three months interviewing New Jersey residents affected by Sandy and talking to them about what has happened in their lives over the past decade.

“On the whole, people are doing pretty well but it has taken a very long time for them to recover,” she said. “Many encountered issues related to insurers providing timely resources to rebuild their homes. Many encountered contractors who took advantage of them.”

The racial and economic disparities that often determine how quickly people recover from a disaster continue, Abramson said.

“The fact that the metropolitan New York economy was strong enough to withstand the worst systemic effects of a storm like Sandy should not lull us into complacency,” he said.  “Mental health effects of Sandy endure among a number of people who were exposed to Sandy, critical infrastructure is still not sufficiently resilient, and social vulnerabilities and inequities continue to persist.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ after Sandy: State bounced back, but recovery was uneven