Historic disaster smashes records

Sandy's strength, indicated by barometric pressure, set a record for Northeast storms New York Harbor saw a record level 32.5-foot wave Sandy cut power to a record number of people in the Northeastern United States Sandy is not expected to come near Katrina's record $108 billion in damages (CNN) -- Superstorm Sandy, which New York Mayor Bloomberg called "a storm of unprecedented proportions," will likely not set records for most costly or most deadly. Still, the mayor tweeted Tuesday that Sandy is "maybe the worst #NYC has ever experienced." The hurricane-turned-cyclone can claim several historical titles. Sandy's strength, as indicated by barometric pressure just before landfall, set a record. The lower the pressure, the stronger the storm. When hurricane hunter aircraft measured its central pressure at 940 millibars -- 27.76 inches -- Monday afternoon, it was the lowest barometric reading ever recorded for an Atlantic storm to make landfall north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The previous record holder was the 1938 "Long Island Express" Hurricane, which dropped as low as 946 millibars. Aerial images from the U.S. Coast Guard show the coastline in Brigantine, New Jersey, on Tuesday, October 30. Sandy struck land near Atlantic City, New Jersey, around high tide Monday night. View photos of the recovery efforts in New York. Homes and other buildings in Brigantine were destroyed in Sandy's wake. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie described the devastation in the state as "unthinkable." Brigantine saw extensive damage from high winds and flooding. Homes are flooded Tuesday in Tuckerton, New Jersey. President Barack Obama signed major disaster declarations for New Jersey and New York, clearing the way for federal aid. A resident walks down a street covered in beach sand due to flooding from Hurricane Sandy in Long Beach, New York on Tuesday. Firefighters work to extinguish flames in a home in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens on Tuesday. The massive fire broke out during the storm and destroyed at least 80 homes Ted Wondsel, owner of Ted's Fishing Station in Long Beach, assesses the damage to his business Tuesday. People wait outside a shelter at the Bergen County Technical Schools Teterboro Campus on Tuesday in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Utility workers from Delmarva Power replace a power pole that was damaged during Hurricane Sandy in Ocean City, Maryland, on Tuesday. Dale Kelly sits on a bench Tuesday on a flooded street in Ocean City, New Jersey, which was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy. Ted Wondsel, left, of Point Lookout works on part of a dock destroyed in the storm in Long Beach on Tuesday. West Broadway in Long Beach is covered in beach sand due to flooding from Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday. Residents walk along a street covered in beach sand after floodwaters from Superstorm Sandy retreated Tuesday in Long Beach. A small plane damaged in the storm sits on a runway in Farmingdale, New York, on Tuesday. Streets remain flooded in portions of Ocean City, New Jersey. Utility workers repair a traffic signal damaged by the storm in Ocean City, New Jersey, on Tuesday. A Virgin Mary statue stands in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, New York, on Tuesday after a fire fed by high winds destroyed at least 80 homes, officials said. President Barack Obama outlines the federal government's response to Superstorm Sandy at the Red Cross headquarters in Washington. Firefighters work to contain the fire in Queens on Tuesday. Some 200 firefighters battled the six-alarm blaze. A man surveys damage to sailboats Tuesday at a marina on City Island in New York. "My message to the federal government: no bureaucracy, no red tape, get resources where they're needed as fast as possible, as hard as possible, and for the duration," Obama said in Washington Tuesday. Both Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney canceled campaign events. People stand on a mound of construction dirt on Tuesday to view a section of the uptown boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that was destroyed by flooding. A firefighter looks through debris in Queens on Tuesday. In September, the same area endured severe weather as a powerful cold front brought heavy rain, high winds and a tornado. A malfunctioning generator billows black smoke at a building in New York on Tuesday. Mitt Romney helps gather donated goods for storm relief Tuesday in Kettering, Ohio. Emergency personnel help a resident of Little Ferry, New Jersey, onto a boat after rescuing her from floodwater on Tuesday. Dean Walter, left. and Henry Young walk along a seawall in Scituate, Massachusetts, with their surfboards after going into the heavy surf for about 20 minutes on Tuesday. Superstorm Sandy left New York's South Street Seaport flooded and covered in debris on Tuesday. Passers-by look at a car that was crushed by a tree near New York's financial district on Tuesday. Pedestrians and bikers cross the Brooklyn Bridge after the storm on Tuesday. People stand among the debris of the destroyed section of Atlantic City, New Jersey's, uptown boardwalk on Tuesday. Sailboats rest on the ground after being tipped over by Superstorm Sandy on City Island, New York, on Tuesday. Onlookers watch a dangling crane, damaged in the winds of Superstorm Sandy, atop a luxury high-rise under construction in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday. An onlooker snaps a photo of the damaged crane on Tuesday. Jolito Ortiz helps clean up a friend's apartment on New York's lower east side on Tuesday. A tidal surge created by Sandy flooded the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in New York on Tuesday. A worker cuts down a tree near American University in Washington on Tuesday. A home badly damaged by Superstorm Sandy sits along the shoreline in Milford, Connecticut, on Tuesday. An emergency worker carries a resident through floodwaters in Little Ferry, New Jersey, on Tuesday. Police walk past debris left by the storm at Battery Park in New York on Tuesday. Floodwater splashes into the window of a building on the shore in Bellport, New York, on Tuesday. Rescue workers use a hovercraft to rescue a resident using a wheelchair from floodwaters in Little Ferry, New Jersey, on Tuesday. A resident of Little Ferry, New Jersey, assists in rescue efforts with his personal watercraft on Tuesday. The HMS Bounty, a 180-foot sailboat, is submerged in the Atlantic Ocean about 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, North Carolina, on Monday, October 29. A man walks through the debris of a 2,000-foot section of Atlantic City, New Jersey's "uptown" boardwalk on Tuesday. It was destroyed by flooding from Sandy. Downed trees are removed near the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington on Tuesday. Heavy surf buckles Ocean Avenue in Avalon, New Jersey, on Tuesday. Sam Rigby walks on Tuesday near an uprooted tree that grazed his house and hit his neighbor's house in Washington. A photographer shoots waves in Lake Michigan generated by the remnants of Sandy as they crash into the Chicago shoreline on Tuesday. A police officer helps remove a tree branch brought down during the storm in Washington on Tuesday. A man takes pictures of cars from the steps of a home on a flooded street at Hoboken in New Jersey, on Tuesday. A woman wades through water at the South Street Seaport in New York City on Tuesday. A street light and utility pole lie on the street in Avalon, New Jersey, on Tuesday. Atlantic City, New Jersey, resident Kim Johnson inspects the area around her flooded apartment building on Tuesday. A power line knocked over by a falling tree blocks a street in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on Tuesday. Workers shovel debris from the streets in Ocean City, Maryland, on Tuesday. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flies over Central Park in New York on Tuesday. A man jogs near a darkened Manhattan skyline on Tuesday after much of New York City lost electricity. Workers clear a tree blocking East 96th Street in Central Park in New York on Tuesday. View more photos of the recovery efforts in New York. Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 Photos: Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Superstorm aftermath from every angle Sandy spawns blizzard in West Virginia iReporters share Hurricane Sandy images Superstorm Sandy batters boats Sandy's strength and angle of approach combined to produce a record storm surge of water into New York City. The surge level at Battery Park topped 13.88 feet at 9:24 p.m. Monday, surpassing the 10.02 feet record water level set by Hurricane Donna in 1960. Sandy's impact: State by state New York Harbor's surf also reached a record level when a buoy measured a 32.5-foot wave Monday. That wave was 6.5 feet taller than a 25-foot wave churned up by Hurricane Irene in 2011. As Sandy approached the Northeast, forecasters were fond of pointing out that if the hurricane were a country, the area it covered would make it the 20th largest in the world -- roughly twice the size of Texas. But with tropical-force winds reaching out 580 miles, Sandy still was just the second-largest Atlantic storm on record. Hurricane Olga, another late-in-the-year storm, set the record in 2001, with tropical-force winds extending 600 miles, according to the National Hurricane Center. Transit systems struggling to restart Sandy's power cut electricity service to a record number of people in the Northeastern United States, according to utility company numbers. There were 7.5 million businesses and households without electric power in 15 states and the District of Columbia by late Tuesday morning, according to numbers compiled by CNN from local power providers. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said 2.4 million households in his state were in the dark Tuesday, twice the number left powerless in Hurricane Irene's wake last year. "This is the largest storm-related outage in our history," John Miksad, Con Edison senior vice president for electric operations, said in a company Twitter message Tuesday. Google maps Sandy flooding, power outages It will take time before we know how expensive Sandy will prove, but early estimates would not make it the costliest on record. Eqecat, which provides loss estimates to the insurance industry, calculated Tuesday that the total cost of property damage and lost business could run between $10 billion to $20 billion. Another estimate, by Kinetic Analysis Corp. research director Chuck Watson, put the Sandy's overall economic impact at $20 billion to $25 billion. Flood damage to New York's subway tunnels and potential electrical system damage is a major wild card, Watson said. Sandy is not expected to come near the $108 billion in damages the National Hurricane Center estimated was done to the Gulf Coast states by Katrina in 2005. With new ways for people to experience and share the storm available, new measures of impact are rising. For example, the smartphone photo-sharing app Instagram registered a record number of image uploads Monday "at a rate of nearly 10 each second -- with the hashtags #hurricanesandy, #sandy and #frankenstorm," the company said. How to help CNN's Sean Morris contributed to this report.