1997 disaster drill featured NY hurricane named "Sandy"

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - There have been a number of comparisons made between Hurricane Sandy and the Hurricane of 1938, but a drill conducted over a decade ago is eerily similar to what the Northeast just experienced.

In 1997, the American Radio Relay League conducted a drill simulating an emergency test for Westchester, County, New York. The path and the name of the storm that the drill dealt with is now hauntingly familiar.

Images for the drill were produced at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, using data from the Hurricane of 1938. The path of the storm that they used was almost identical to the one Hurricane Sandy took this week, and the name they came up with for the simulated storm is even more haunting: Sandy.

The similarity between the drill and the actual storm we just saw, took some people in our area by surprise.

“That's quite a coincidence, yeah it's strange,” Brian Jarry of West Springfield said.

“Wow, that's amazing,” Dan Lavelli of West Springfield said. “I don't know, that's crazy.”

The choice to name the simulated storm “Sandy” came from the fact that the Westchester County Communications Officer at the time was Sandy Fried, who was nine years old during the Hurricane of 1938.