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Mark Lennihan / AP file
A piece of construction equipment works on the pile of debris, collected during the cleanup from superstorm Sandy, in the parking lot of Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaway section of the Queens borough of New York, Nov. 14.
New York state and New Jersey need at least $71.3 billion to recover from the devastation wrought by superstorm Sandy and prevent similar damage from future storms, according to their latest estimates.
The total, which could grow, came as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday the state will need $41.9 billion, including $32.8 billion to repair and restore damaged housing, parks and infrastructure and to cover lost revenue and other expenses. The figure also includes $9.1 billion to mitigate potential damage from future severe weather events, Cuomo said.
Neighboring New Jersey, which saw massive damage to its transit system and coastline, suffered at least $29.4 billion in overall losses, according to a preliminary analysis released by Gov. Chris Christie's office Friday. The preliminary cost estimate includes federal aid New Jersey has received so far.
By some measures, Sandy was worse than Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which tore into the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Cuomo said.
Sandy destroyed 305,000 houses in New York state - a still provisional number that's likely to grow - compared with the 214,700 destroyed in Louisiana by Katrina and Rita.
Sandy also caused nearly 2.2 million power outages at its peak in the state, compared with 800,000 from Katrina and Rita in Louisiana, and impacted 265,300 businesses compared to 18,700, Cuomo said.
While Sandy may have damaged more homes and businesses, Katrina took a far greater toll on human lives, killing more than 1,800 people directly or indirectly. Sandy, by comparison, is believed to have killed at least 121 people.
"Hurricane Katrina got a lot of notoriety for the way government handled -- or mishandled, depending on your point of view -- the situation," Cuomo said at a press conference.
But considering the dense population of the area Sandy impacted and costs to the economy, housing and businesses, the damage done "was much larger in Hurricane Sandy than in Hurricane Katrina, and that puts this entire conversation, I believe, in focus," Cuomo said.
New York to hire 5,000 temp workers for Sandy cleanup
Sandy made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29. It blasted through the Northeastern U.S., devastating homes, forcing evacuations, crippling power systems and shutting down New York City's subway system for days.
The total cost to the region is still not known as estimates of the damage, as well as future repair and prevention costs, continue to come in from states, cities and counties.
Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday he will ask Congress for $9.8 billion to pay for Sandy costs not covered by insurance or other federal funds.
In a letter to New York's congressional delegation, Bloomberg said public, private and indirect losses to the city from the devastating late-October storm stood at $19 billion.
Of that, private insurance is expected to cover $3.8 billion, with Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursements to cover at least an additional $5.4 billion, Bloomberg said in a statement.
The city still will need the additional $9.8 billion to help pay for costs that FEMA does not cover, like hazard mitigation, long-term housing, shoreline restoration and protection efforts, he said.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
Residents of the Northeast are still picking up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.
Whatever the final tally, officials are beginning to pressure Congress for federal assistance.
Cuomo met on Monday with the state's congressional delegation and county officials. U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said in a statement that New York's Congressional delegation will push hard for additional federal funding.
"The federal government has a clear responsibility to commit all of the necessary resources to help us rebuild," she said.
Getting federal funds could be a tough fight, because of pressure on lawmakers to cut spending and raise taxes in order to shrink the federal deficit.
"This will be an effort that lasts not weeks, but many months, and we will not rest until the federal response meets New York's deep and extensive needs," said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer in a statement.
Cuomo's earlier estimates had pegged the total amount of damages for the region at $50 billion, with about $33 billion of that incurred in New York state.
In New York City, Bloomberg said on Monday that the city had about $4.8 billion of uninsured private losses, $3.8 billion of insured private losses, and $4.5 billion in losses to city agencies.
Reconstructing the city's damaged roads alone could cost nearly $800 million, Bloomberg said. New York City, a financial and tourism center, also lost about $5.7 billion in gross city product, he said.
Included in Cuomo's nearly $9.1 billion of mitigation costs are what he called "common sense" actions, like flood protection for the World Trade center site, roads, subway tunnels and sewage treatment plants, as well as power generators for the region's fuel supply system and backup power for health care facilities.
"We will see new projects," said Mysore Nagaraja, former president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Capital Construction Co.
"In order to justify whatever money they finally end up getting, they have to come up with this list of projects that need to be done so that the future Sandy will not have the impact it had this time," he said.
Nagaraja is currently chairman of Spartan Solutions LLC, an infrastructure consulting firm.
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Remember, that the damage estimate for Katrina did not hit its actual number for 4 months. This figure's just the beginning, and it will only go up again and again, as more areas complete damage appraisals. There are entire townships in NJ that still need to be checked out. I wouldn't be surprised if the figure doubled before the end of 1Q 2013. NJ isn't even finished surveying things and they've already found $29 billion in actual PHYSICAL damage.
Like it or not, this is our future. This is what decades of inaction on climate change buys our country. .. or even if you don't believe in climate change, simply preparing for storms. An ounce of prevention, as they say. $6 billion dollars worth of barriers in NY harbor would've reduced tens of billions in damage today to a few fallen tree branches. But no, we couldn't fund anything like that until the climate change hypothesis was absolutely "proven" according to Congress, when NYC first thought the money to build the system.
Climate change my glutenous maximus,can't you come up with an original thought that is not left wing propaganda to feather the pockets of so many liberals running the "Green" scam...
The earths climate has been changing since day 1 period. Green house gases a few million years ago were a lot thicker than they are now and did not create the Ice age, per the Ice Cores removed and test in Antartica in the 60's. The earth had thousands of active Volcano's the spewed more carbon dioxide and sulfur containing compounds into the air than man has produced yet in his few thousand years of existence. Also you must realize that for thousands of years the primary source of heat, cooking and defense was an open fire or one in a hearth or a fireplace as it still is in many Countries like India and Africa and even here in the United States...Peridocially the entire 31 million mile grass plains in America burnt over every year.
But the real reason, Yes the real reason we are having a Climate Change is because of 350 million Backyard Barbecue pits...Yup that's the cause,,and intestinal gas from GM food fed to Cows...and of course Airplanes Polluting the upper atmosphere with thousands of tons of exhaust each day...
Funny how the Scientists forget to put those items into their Computer simiulations, why? Because it will mess up their already written thesis, they write the program to support what they already decided..And how about the Federal Governments messing with the Atmosphere above Alaska with the HAAARP project....check it out on the web. You can't tell me that project is not messing with the Climate...
How 'bout we stop this nasty back & forth and say a prayer for those who are still suffering from all natural disasters...... with deep gratitude that; We are not in their shoes (if they have any at all) ...YET. By the grace of GOD, there go I.
My condolences to all of those who lost loved ones due to this storm, I was raised in an area that was prone to flooding (every year) I am positive my parents never received one cent of aid from city, state or the federal government. Why didn't they move, couldn't afford it, you can't just walk away from your home and start over. A serious concern is what they plan to do with all of the trash, I believe that both New York and New Jersey ship all or most of their trash to other states, so how many landfills will they fill up for other States to have to deal with.
Reconstructing the city's damaged roads alone could cost nearly $800 million, Bloomberg said. New York City, a financial and tourism center, also lost about $5.7 billion in gross city product, he said.
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I can't help but wonder how much of this damage was to already-compromised roads and structures. Many of the roads damaged here in NJ were already in shabby condition. Yet another way that failure to invest in infrastructure can be costly.
No place is safe from natural events, but there are places that are inherently more dangerous and statistically more likely to be hit - and we are smart enough now to know where those places are.
The coastlines of every continent are one of those places - as are seismically active areas. We simply should not live in these areas - period. Mother nature will always and eventually win.
Storms like Sandy have hit the New York and New Jersey areas before - many, many times before. The difference was that no one lived there then! Storms have been hitting that coast for millions of years - it's only in the last 300 - 400 years that humans in any significant numbers have lived there.
So we need to consider whether we should re-build anything near the coast, because it will be hit again, and everything we build will be destroyed - again - it's a mathematical certainty. It's just a matter of when. Maybe it won't be for another 50 years - but does that make it acceptable? 'Well, by then it'll be someone else's problem, so who cares' - is that really how we want to make decisions?
A generations-long, gradual de-settlement of coastal areas, through attrition, is one possible solution. Just don't re-build - let mother nature determine where the coastlines will be - because that will happen anyway.
We are smart enough that this never needs to happen again. No one should live in any sort of a floodplain - ever. No one should leave near an active volcano. No one should live on an earthquake fault. We humans operate on such impossibly short time horizons, when we really should consider the earth's time horizon and make decisions accordingly. There is no guarantee of ultimate safety anywhere - but living on a coastline is akin to building a home on train tracks, and telling yourself it's OK, simply because you haven't seen a train in a while.
So tell me my fellow Americans, how does it feel to be in that hand basket in hell never to return again as America once was? Many of you represent the very feelings and attitude of this country towards each other and the government and that's whats divided us for years and now it's way too late. America is gone, finished, over with. Those who have jobs are so stressed out it's not funny and those that can't find jobs are in the millions. Democracy has failed and if you beleive that any one human being, be it Rep or Dem, can glue all this back togather then you're living in a world of pipe dreams.
We are too busy in rebuilding other countries but we cant help ourselves and that is a shame! WHERE ARE THE OTHER COUNTRIES THAT CAN HELP OUR COUNTRY OUT?
Actually, I believe that most of our allies in Europe plus Canada offered assistance, but, as is customary for us, when we are able to help ourselves, we declined. Iran cynically offered assistance and we ignored them, as we should have. A number of other countries - like China and Japan - provided emergency assistance not to the US but to the Caribbean countries effected by Sandy, like Haiti, Cuba, etc, thereby preventing us from having to do so. The world did respond, but, as the world's wealthiest country, we don't really need them.
CaliforniaFirst
Where is all that wealth you talk about? Money we owe in government bonds owned by china and others? We already owe more money for this year than we will get in taxes.
My how times change. T. Roosevelt was offered outside help after the SF earth quake and declined it saying we can take care of ourselves, the nation agreed.
A bank did it's duty to help out with the rebuilding while some had to be forced at gun point NOT to take advantage of the situation by the National Guard. That bank became The Bank Of America, but bears no resemblance to it's founder.
once again the insurance companys are free from responsibility ....why do we need these companys ..if the government always pays why not insure with them , or is that us....pool all our money and we can pay ourselves ...
Really I would be ashamed to compare anything to Katrina because the cost of lives can't be measured by dollars. New York has enough inflated cost just fix it already and shut up.
Screw you. Get a life, learn to take care of yourself and quit complaining...Get your union bosses to help and finance this absolute joke, it was nothing more than a damn thunderstorm...Super storm my ass...
this Hurricane has nothing to do with Mother nature, but God trying to Bitch slap this world who has been corrupted by our screwed up Politicians.... they are the ones who have messed up our nation ... wake up call- Hello is anyone there
4% Doesn't sound like much but when you're talking about the increase in atmospheric water vapor over the last 30 years it's huge. It's effectively how much more energy is available to drive storms. With global warming that increase in water vapor will continue, storms will get bigger and more frequent and a killer like Sandy will be remembered as one of the little ones. The ice caps are melting faster than any serious climatologist would want to admit, sea levels rises will put Manhattan largely under water and yet we keep sending the same crooked clowns to Congress where they mostly sell out to Big Carbon as soon as they arrive.
...and wall street rubs it's hands together while heart strings are played. The very people who will be compensated are the people who will benefit most. It's just so, patriotic for the "united" states.
$71 Billion hell might as well round up to $100 Billion. Whats another $29 Billion among friends. Just fire up the printing press.
The good mayor Bloomberg stands to make millions as usual from the disaster.
I as a tax payer wouldn't mind supporting this help except most of the money would never get to the people and the price tag will simply double.
Christie will now cash in on his ringing endorsement of Obama's handling of the hurricane aftermath.
Politics=Money=Taxpayers screwed
(Just for the record I vote libertarian)
Just asking...collect any guvment bennies yourself billy? You didn't earn them and that makes you as lilly livered welfare queen
We sent money (lots of it) to texass, miserablesippi and loserana so why the crying and moaning from the red state reichwingers about helping out their neighboirs...Were all of those white guys on the gulf coast a bunch of welfare hunting scumbags too?
Actually Rick, your statement is very untrue..The east coast people have historically been the most tight fisted when it has come to charity donations that are not Union sponsored or for Politcal uses. They always have their hands out from Philadelphia to Bar Harbor Maine..It is also been proven, just a few weeks ago in an AP piece that Demoncrats and Unions are the worst or cheapest donors of all Americans...But have the biggest hands stretched out for the freebies...
The negative reactions here can hardly be faulted. The issue isn't the devastating loss of life and property - it is the nauseating response of government that you knew would be coming. Look at some of the comments from government officials (at all levels) - there is almost an arrogant pompousness that no amount of money is unreasonable, and that the taxpayer should just shut up and pay it until NY and NJ say differently. The problem is we have seen all this before - think Boston's "Big Dig". That will look like a flea market before this is over. You can bet a $1000 job will turn into a million dollar job; an $8 dollar piece of lumber is suddenly $25; a carpet that costs $4 a foot is now, overnight, $20 a foot; a $500 dollar repair is, not surprisingly, $5000. This $71 billion dollar "total" has grown by $40 billion in a couple days. This "demand" for virtually unlimited compensation is like blood in the water to a shark - the feeding frenzy is on. Government cannot, and I mean cannot, manage things like this and they have absolutely no incentive to - think this is not true? Let's get the Vegas GSA crowd to handle the repair of all the Federal government buildings... Wow, I can't wait to see how that works out. For those who doubt this prediction, just take a look at the stimulus money that went for "weatherization" - the money that was squandered on that program was criminal, and this "weatherization" will make that debacle look like chump change. Well, hold on to your wallets - the "socialism of responsibility" of NY and NJ are about to take everyone for a wild, and very, very, very expensive ride...
Well, the real cost is probably around $10 Billion but once you add in the Union costs and the Polticians cut and all the required "kick backs" New York and New Jersey are famous for, I can see where it would soar to $71 billion over night..
Funny, anyone hear or read of any of these big Unions donating any money at all out of there own funds to help out there own people other than a few cases of water? I was told yesterday that in New York the average Union member dues works out to be somewhere around $10 and hour per Union member on the job..So the Unions must be flush with cash and might spend it on helping people instead of greasing Politicans sticky hands...