United States

The Benghazi attack and Superstorm Sandy

On September 11 the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked, and J. Christopher Stevens, who was serving as U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans were killed. Initially, it was thought that the attack was a spontaneous action by rioters angered by an anti-Islam film made in the United States (demonstrations had already occurred at the U.S. embassy in Cairo and elsewhere), but it soon appeared that the assault was actually a premeditated terrorist attack. The incident became an element of the presidential campaign, with Romney controversially criticizing the level of security at the Benghazi post and the administration’s response to the attack.

In the last week of October, during the final run-up to the election, a huge area of the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic states was pummeled by a powerful superstorm, Sandy, that resulted from the convergence of a category 1 hurricane that swept up from the Caribbean and made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey, and a cold front that descended from the north. New Jersey and New York were arguably the areas hardest hit by Sandy, as tidal surges flooded beach communities and portions of Lower Manhattan. More than 110 people died in the United States as a result of the storm, which left an enormous path of destruction and millions without power.

Superstorm SandyDowned power lines and damaged residences in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, U.S., in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, 2012.Julio Cortez/AP