EARTH USA Mantoloking -- 31 Oct 2012 -- On October 29, 2012, lives were changed forever along the shores of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut

EARTH USA Mantoloking -- 31 Oct 2012 -- On October 29, 2012, lives were changed forever along the shores of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and in the two dozen United States affected by what meteorologists are calling Superstorm Sandy. The landscape of the East Coast was also changed, though no geologist would ever use the word “forever” when referring to the shape of a barrier island. The two aerial photographs above show a portion of the New Jersey coastal town of Mantoloking, just north of where Hurricane Sandy made landfall. The top photograph was taken by the Remote Sensing Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on October 31, 2012; the lower image was acquired by the same group on March 18, 2007. The images were acquired from an altitude of roughly 7,500 feet, using a Trimble Digital Sensor System. This is the after image, the other file by comparison showing the damage from Superstorm Sandy is LRBQ0010 -- Picture by Lightroom Photos/NOAA/NASA