A dozen years ago today, what came to be known as Superstorm Sandy was bearing down on New York City with unprecedented force and devastation after it had already ravaged swaths of the Caribbean and other parts of the country. New York had borne the brunt of big storms before, of course, but we were not necessarily prepared for the incredible storm surge that the hurricane generated, which caused extensive flooding, tens of billions of dollars’ worth of damages and more than 50 direct deaths in NYC, not to mention the likely dozens of excess deaths that were caused by complications from the storm.