N.Y., N.J. events recall ’12 storm

NEW YORK — Communities across New York and New Jersey marked the fifth anniversary of superstorm Sandy on Sunday, a day that saw the region hit by another strong storm system containing soaking rains and strong winds.

“Of course Mother Nature is taking another shot at us today. She has a sick sense of humor,” Richard Thompson said Sunday while watching the rain fall at a convenience store in Toms River, N.J. “This storm obviously won’t be anywhere near what Sandy was, but it would have been nicer to have a sunny day today.”

Thompson said his family’s summer home in the Mantoloking area was destroyed by Sandy, a meteorological hybrid “superstorm” created when a former hurricane merged with other systems. The home has been rebuilt, but the lengthy process of getting the work completed was “a nightmare. Just so many people and agencies involved,” Thompson said.

Sandy was blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S. and Caribbean and more than $71 billion in damage in the U.S. It swamped coastline communities, knocked out power to millions of people and businesses, flooded parts of New York City’s transit system and set neighborhoods ablaze.

As a light rain fell on the Rockaway Peninsula on Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio marked the anniversary in the waterfront neighborhood.

“Five years later, it’s impossible to forget what happened,” de Blasio said at a neighborhood YMCA. “We’re talking about the worst natural disaster we have ever faced in this city.”