Sandy's hit is hard to gauge for economists

Eqecat, one of the three primary firms used by the insurance industry to calculate disaster exposures, taps a complex historical database to estimate each storm's impact - from the power of the winds to the angle at which the storm hits land and the speed at which the storm system advances.

"We have this data for the past more than 100 years," said Annes Haseemkunju, an Eqecat meteorologist.

The company estimates that Sandy caused about $10 billion to $20 billion in total economic damages, including about $5 billion to $10 billion in insured losses. That doesn't include, say, workers' time lost commuting to work because trains are not running.

In comparison, Eqecat estimated last year that Irene caused up to $3 billion in insured losses.

Factors that will boost the recovery from Sandy include the highly developed U.S. insurance market - a stark contrast with developing countries hit by disasters - and aid from the federal government.

More intangibly, areas frequently hit by storms tend to invest more in education to train highly skilled workers rather than plowing money into vulnerable property, said Mark Skidmore, an economics professor at Michigan State University.

A workforce with portable skills, such as in finance or the sciences, both of which abound in the New York area, is able to bounce back more quickly from an event like Sandy than a population that relies on damaged manufacturing plants, he said.

Research suggests disasters can also subtly boost the bonds of trust among colleagues and communities.

"You've got to work together to address your collective challenges," Skidmore said.

That, in turn, helps productivity.

"People develop relationships they might not otherwise have had."