New Sign At Manhattan Pier Serves As Reminder Of Sandy's Devastation

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Five years after Sandy, there is now a permanent reminder of the devastation along the East River in Lower Manhattan.

Officials unveiled a sign Friday at Pier 35 near Manhattan Bridge that shows the wall of water surging from the river was five feet high during Sandy.

PHOTOS: Sandy's Aftermath From Above

Emergency Management Commissioner Joe Esposito wants the marker to remind people the danger of the storm.

"As time goes by people tend to forget what really happened in this city," he said. "So it's just to raise awareness hopefully, so that people will prepare. Make a plan for yourself and your family to prepare for an event, react to an event and recover from an event."

Espositio said the Office of Emergency Management learned a number of lessons from Sandy and he feels the city is better prepared now.

Superstorm Sandy roared ashore on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, devastating the coastlines of New Jersey, New York and parts of Connecticut and becoming one of the costliest storms in U.S. history.

The former hurricane merged with other systems to create a meteorological hybrid storm that hit the nation's most populous metro area.

PHOTOS: Aftermath Of Sandy: User-Submitted Photos

It swamped coastline communities, knocked out power, flooded parts of city's transit system, set neighborhoods ablaze and killed dozens of people.

The storm is blamed for 182 deaths, including 48 in New York and 12 in New Jersey. More than 70 were killed in the Caribbean, including 54 in Haiti.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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• Peter Haskell