The reported death toll from hurricane Sandy's flooding and high winds has now reached above 120. Over 70 deaths were caused by Sandy in the Caribbean and recent reports bring the total to greater than 50 in the United States.

Much of the recent deadly flooding along the northeastern United States coastlines was caused by super storm Sandy's storm surge. Strong winds from Sandy persistently pushed Atlantic ocean waters toward the coast. High tides that occurred at the same time also magnified the effects of the storm surge. Some flooding was also caused by long periods of heavy rainfall that made rivers and streams overflow their banks.

The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center monitors rainfall over a large area of the globe (50N-50S). MPA rainfall totals over the eastern United States are shown above for the period from October 24-31, 2012 when super storm Sandy was making it's catastrophic transit through the area. This rainfall analysis indicates that the heaviest rainfall totals of greater than 260mm (10.2 inches) were over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Rainfall totals of over 180mm (~ 7 inches) are also shown over land in many areas near the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to South Carolina. Hurricane Sandy's track over the Atlantic Ocean is shown overlaid on this analysis in white.