Hurricane Sandy caused over $60 billion in economic damage in 2012. This study quantifies the contribution of anthropogenic climate change-induced sea level rise to these damages. Using simulations of water levels and damage under various sea level scenarios, the researchers found that approximately $8.18 billion (5th–95th percentiles: $4.7B–$14.0B) of Sandy's damages are attributable to anthropogenic sea level rise, affecting an additional 71,000 people. The methodology is applicable to other coastal storms.

Benjamin H. Strauss, Philip M. Orton, Klaus Bittermann, Maya K. Buchanan, Daniel M. Gilford, Robert E. Kopp, Scott Kulp, Chris Massey, Hans de Moel, Sergey Vinogradov