Even before it slammed into the New Jersey coast, Hurricane Sandy had disrupted travel, halted stock trading, and forced thousands to flee to higher ground. Rated initially as a Category 1 hurricane (based on the five-point Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale), Sandy still was, as President Barack Obama put it, “a serious and big storm." Its 90 mph winds spanned more than 900 miles across and the prospect of flooding and wind damage left New York City a ghost town as the East Coast awaited its landfall.
Here's a look at Sandy's damage so far, and a look back at the worst U.S. storms of the past 100 years.
