By State › New York
New York: Risks & Trends
Download all of New York as PDF PrintSame standard as every other page on this site: every figure below is independently sourced, and figures that vary across sources, or measure genuinely different things, are flagged as such rather than collapsed into one number that looks more precise than the underlying data actually supports.
Hurricane Sandy (2012): coastal storm surge
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| New York State deaths | 48 |
| Direct New York City deaths | 43 |
| Share of direct deaths caused by drowning | 90%, most within 3 days of landfall |
| New York City area flooded | 51 sq mi |
| New York City damage estimate | ~$19 billion |
| Homes severely damaged (5 boroughs) | ~2,000 |
| Homes moderately damaged (5 boroughs) | ~15,000 |
Sandy’s death toll came almost entirely from storm surge, not wind, the same pattern later seen in Hurricane Ian’s Florida landfall a decade later. Nearly 2 million people lost power at some point during the storm.
Hurricane Ida remnants (2021): inland flash flooding
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| New York City deaths | 13 |
| Deaths in basement apartments specifically | 11 |
| Share of deaths that were drowning in unregulated basement units | 71% |
| Peak one-hour rainfall (NYC record) | 3.15 in |
| City sewer system's typical one-hour capacity | ~1.75 in |
Why this is a structurally different risk from Sandy, not a smaller version of it
Sandy was a coastal storm surge event: predictable direction, tied to a specific coastline, with days of advance warning. Ida’s NYC flooding was an inland flash flood driven by rainfall rate overwhelming fixed sewer infrastructure, capable of striking anywhere in the city with far less lead time, and it killed people specifically in housing, unregulated basement apartments outside the mapped 100-year floodplain, that official flood-risk tools didn’t flag as dangerous at all.
Winter Storm Elliott (2022): the Buffalo blizzard
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| New York State deaths | 47 |
| Erie County deaths | 39+ |
| Peak snowfall (Snyder, NY) | 56.5 in |
| Buffalo airport snowfall total | 51.9 in |
| Peak wind gust (Lackawanna, NY) | 79 mph |
| Maximum snowdrift height | up to 15 ft |
This was the deadliest storm in the Buffalo area’s recorded history, surpassing the region’s previous benchmark, the Blizzard of 1977. Unlike Sandy or Ida, this risk is geographically concentrated: it’s specifically a western New York, Lake Erie lake-effect phenomenon, not a statewide one.
What these three have in common
New York’s geography produces three genuinely distinct disaster mechanisms rather than one dominant hazard type: a coastal metro area exposed to storm surge, dense inland housing stock vulnerable to flash flooding regardless of official floodplain maps, and a Great Lakes region exposed to some of the most intense lake-effect snowfall in the country. A household’s actual risk profile in New York depends heavily on which of these three geographies they live in, more so than in most other states covered on this site.
Sources
- Hurricane Sandy New York death toll and damage figures: CDC MMWR; Wikipedia, sourced to contemporary reporting
- Hurricane Ida NYC death toll, basement apartment statistics, and rainfall record: ABC News; NYC Health Department
- Winter Storm Elliott New York death toll, snowfall, and wind data: Wikipedia, sourced to contemporary reporting