Superstorm Sandy: A Look Back (PHOTOS)

Ten years ago, on the evening of October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey shore devastating coastal communities.

Sandy was responsible for at least 72 direct deaths in the U.S. (and many more indirect deaths), with 48 occuring in New York and 12 in New Jersey, and caused more than $71 billion ($81.9 billion when adjusted for inflation) in damage in the country. The facts and figures of the record-breaking storm are astounding, but the visuals truly drive home the way Sandy changed lives throughout the Tri-state area and into New England. Here’s a look back on the photos that tell the story of the historic storm.

T​he New Jersey Damage

Superstorm Sandy made landfall seven miles north of Atlantic City, New Jersey, bringing catastrophic storm surge and 80 mph winds. The highest New Jersey storm surge measured 8.57 feet in Sandy Hook, and up and down the coast, homes and businesses were flooded and grounded.

Perhaps one of the most devastated Jersey towns was Mantoloking, known for its oceanside mansions. Sandy’s surge effectively cut off homes from the rest of the state, and for months it wasn’t uncommon to see some of the large homes swept from their foundations into places where they didn’t stand before, or leaning precariously, as if about to completely crumble.

Mantoloking wasn’t unique in this, as Sandy left some 346,000 homes damaged or destroyed in New Jersey, according to the New York Times. One of the most iconic images from the state is of a yellow home in Union Beach, New Jersey, nearly torn clear in half by the storm, still standing as if a ghost of itself.

New Jersey’s boardwalks alone took on tens of millions of dollars in damage, with entire sections swept away along with beach towns’ homes and roads. Let’s not forget the jarring photos of the Star Jet Roller Coaster, which stood rusting in the Atlantic off of Seaside Heights, New Jersey, for six months after Sandy’s winds and surge calmed.

S​andy's Impact on New York

The scenes from New York were equally as terrifying and devastating. Sandy brought a record 12.65 feet of storm surge to Kings Point in western Long Island Sound, and in Battery Park, water levels rose to nearly 14 feet.

A shocking 51 square miles of New York City flooded, according to a report by NYC.gov. That’s 17% of the city’s total land mass. The surge exceeded the 100-year-floodplain boundaries in place at the time by 53%, and in some parts of the city, flooded areas were several times the size of the floodplains on FEMA maps.

The hardest hit New York neighborhoods were in South Queens, Southern Brooklyn and the East and South Shores of Staten Island. Homes and critical infrastructure were were destroyed, and apartments and subway stations were dangerously flooded.

In Queen’s Breezy Point neighborhood, the storm surge triggered a six-alarm fire, but the floodwaters made it impossible for firefighters to respond. More than 130 homes were burned down.

S​andy Moves To New England

High winds knocked down trees in Boston and storm surge and coastal flooding affected some parts of New England, such as Scituate, Massachusetts. Schools and most government offices reopened in the region within days after the storm.

S​andy's Snow

W​ith all the jarring damage photos that came out of the Northeast, one of Sandy's weirder effects is often forgotten or left out of the conversation. While hitting New Jersey and New York, Sandy dumped feet of snow in the Appalachian Mountains.

M​ore than 50 locations in the region reported at least 1 foot of snow, with a snow total of 3 feet measured near Richwood, West Virginia, and on North Carolina's Wolf Laurel Mountain. 

T​he Fuel Shortage

S​andy plunged the Northeast into a gas shortage that lasted weeks, and was only alleviated by state-imposed gasoline rations, the first since the 1970s.

"The industry suffered crippling blows at almost every link," Reuters reported six months after Sandy. "Foreign oil tankers were halted by water debris, refineries were flooded and shut, pipelines and storage depots were idled by power cuts and tanker trucks were commandeered by emergency agencies."

(​MORE: Superstorm Sandy Made For One Of The Most Eeriest Halloweens In Recent Memory)

T​his left two-thirds of the Northeast's gas stations gasless, and the other third struggling to provide their main product. Consumers in some areas were left driving upwards of 20 miles to find gasoline, toting along gas canisters to stock up on the hard-to-find good for their generators. Lines extended through towns for miles past stations, and customers waited for hours just to fill their tanks.

The odd-even rationing which in New Jersey was imposed on Nov. 3 and lasted more than a week, and in New York began on Nov. 8 and spanned for more than two weeks, eventually helped, but it took months to repair the supply chain.

Superstorm Sandy was the deadliest and costliest storm in the Northeast in recent memory. The storm left much of the East Coast in chaos for weeks, and even months. Ten years later, some things still haven't completely returned to normal, and never will. The ocean took some pieces the Northeast will never get back. Be sure to click through each slideshow above to see highlights from one of the most defining events in the region in the last decade.

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