The Eerie Lunar landscape caused by Hurricane Sandy on the Shores of New York City

By James Nye

Looking like pyramids, these giant polished piles of sand are graphic examples of the sheer scale of the power of Hurricane Sandy.

Made up of all the sand collected from the devastated streets of The Rockaways, Queens, the 18 dunes stand on the parking lot of Jacob Riis Park - causing it to resemble an eerie lunar landscape.

Etched by the wind and the rain, the 30-foot tall dunes were photographed just two days ago, standing by the ocean front that took such a battering during the October 2012 storm.

Some of the 18 pyramids of sifted sand from Hurricane Sandy sit on the parking lot at Jacob Riis Park in The Rockaways, Queens

The storm battered the little peninsula of Rockaway that juts between the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay.
The entire area, which has 130,000 residents, was in the city’s mandatory evacuation zone, but hundreds decided to stay and weather the storm. 

Flood-waters made the community inaccessible for fire crews for many hours during the aftermath of the October 29th storm.
Firefighters said 25 people were stuck in one burning building and had to be rescued by boat because the water was chest deep.

Like a lunar landscape the 30-feet tall dunes have been etched by the wind and were photographed on December 30th 2012

The dunes were created by piling up sand that had been blown off the beach from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012

Jacob Riis Park in The Rockaways - visible in the background are the trucks who had hauled the sand from the surrounding area

The sand is being protected by the Department of Sanitation and has sprung up because of the sheer volume of sand that covered The Rockaways

Firefighter Michael Parrella told the New York Times that the area was ‘probably the most flooded part of the city.’
Some residents of the Rockaways in Queens still continue to struggle without power, heat or food as their neighborhood slowly recovers from the devastating storm.
In the days after Sandy hit and with little police presence on the storm-ravaged streets, many residents of the peninsula were forced to take their protection into their own hands, arming themselves with guns, baseball bats and even bows and arrows to ward off thugs seeking to loot their homes.
Across the whole of New York about 60 million people were left without power in 8.2 million homes and businesses and the storm killed 131 across the country.

The eerie landscape is accentuated by the breeze blowing up the sand from the floor of Jacob Riis Park

A man walks next to standing water and piles of sand swept onto a road in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy at Rockaway Beach

Debris from Hurricane Sandy is piled up in the aftermath of the superstorm which devastated parts of New York City

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255756/The-eerie-lunar-landscape-caused-Hurricane-Sandy-shores-New-York-City.html#ixzz2Gn64dTKF