Hasbeen,

FYI - found this, which may help too:

http://www.ga.gov.au/hazards/cyclone/cyclone-basics/what.html

Most notably, it says: "Storm surge, or coastal inundation by seawater, is a lesser known phenomenon but can be the most dangerous element of a cyclone."

And:
"Potentially the most dangerous hazard associated with tropical cyclones which make landfall is storm surge. Storm surge has been responsible for more deaths than any other feature of tropical cyclones. Storm surge is a raised dome of water about 60 to 80 kilometres across and typically about two to five metres higher than the normal tide level. It is caused by a combination of strong winds driving water onshore and the lower atmospheric pressure in a tropical cyclone. In the southern hemisphere the onshore winds occur to the left of the tropical cyclone's path. In Australia, this is the east side on the north west and north coasts and the south side on the east coast.

The largest surge usually extends between 30 and 60 kilometres from the crossing point of the tropical cyclone centre, or eye. Its influence also depends on the local topography of the seafloor and the angle at which the cyclone crosses the coast. If the surge occurs at the same time as a high astronomical tide the area inundated can be extensive, particularly along low-lying coastlines."

And on top of all that it occurred at high water springs !

Hasbeen,

I doubt this link will answer your fundamental question, however, it's related to the subject....obviously the north-east of the US is vulnerable to storm surge. Anyway, you may be interested in this analysis of paper published in Nature this year:

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/98/37G63/

its a co-incidence..of 4 events..
key of which is the timming of it..[at the full moon..indicating a matriarchal warning sign..

the flood damage is the only really bad fruit
of a super high/full moon\..tide..mixing with a cyclical spiral arm of cyclonic surges..

the huge tide surge..at EGSACTLY..the right time..AND PLACE*

i discussed it before the event here
http://www.celestinevision.com/celestine/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3379

http://www.celestinevision.com/celestine/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3337&start=30

and pretty much over perceptions of it
but those ignoring the signs..dont say you wernt told

but to return to why
all i can offer is HOW*
storm surge/full moon..timming.

Hi Hasbeen I followed up your URL and found the following which argues that Hurricane Sandy is the shape of things to come as predicted by most scientists regarding climate change and it effect on the US and Canada.

"The researchers found that the frequency of massive storm surges would go up in proportion to an increase in more violent storms and a rise in sea level, the researchers reported. They noted that climate models predict that the sea level around New York City could rise by 1.5 to nearly 5 feet by the end of the 21st century.

Hi all.

The mayor of New York did some thing this morning to deal with traffic chaos that takes effect from tomorrow morning. Cars with be stopped from entering NY City unless it has at least three occupants. This should cope with todays on e two hour long at wait bus stops and the flooded underground railway with its flooded tunnels and their burnt out electricity systems . Provide all other with better support service

As a practical way to reduce the global warming that is underway, mandatory peak hour shared cars could solve road congestion problems in austrlaia by deferringmore more freeway and main road construction thus freeing up funds to renovate urban railways and speed up buses on the existing roads they use

US Republican strategists have discovered that there is no pool so shallow that several million people won't drown in it. The latest one is that FEMA emergency organization set up by Obama to deal and according to CNN FEMA has 2000 experienced peoplein 8 states helping people to deal with this catastrophy.

Remember when started promoting the idea that Barack Obama was not born in the US, that man-made climate change is an Eco-fascist-communist-anarchist conspiracy, or that the deficit results from the greed of the poor, they now appeal to the basest, stupidest impulses, and find that it does them no harm in the polls. Nown the tide is turning foagainst them

Don't take my word for it. Listen to what two former Republican ideologues, David Frum and Mike Lofgren, have been saying. Frum "warns that conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts its own history, its own laws of economics". The result is a "shift to ever more extreme, ever more fantasy-based ideology" which has "ominous real-world consequences for American society" and the world