Cuomo Compares Sandy's Destruction to Katrina

Asking for federal aid to clean up after the disaster, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that Hurricane Sandy’s destruction was on a larger scale than Katrina in terms of housing damage and power outages, according to City and State.

Cuomo is seeking $32.8 billion in storm damages, plus another $9.1 to prepare for a future storm.

According to City and State, Hurricane Katrina took more lives and cost much more in damages – $146.3 billion compared to Sandy’s more than $50 billion. Sandy’s total cost puts it ahead of Hurricane Andrew ($44.3 billion), Hurricane Ike ($28.9 billion) and Hurricane Wilma ($18.7 billion).

“Hurricane Katrina is what everybody remembers, but Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Wilma, a whole alphabet, a family of hurricanes have hit this country over the past years,” Cuomo said, according to City and State. “There have been storms also, and floods also, and what the federal government has done is gone to the Congress and they said, ‘This region has been badly hit. They’re suffering the consequence of the loss.’ You can’t ask that region to now finance that recovery, because the region has been disabled to some extent.”

If Cuomo can’t get Congressional approval for more federal aid, the state would be forced to trim agency spending and cut aid to local governments, according to an earlier Wall Street Journal report.