ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of media, particularly data, in the creation of Two Sandys. It is part of a larger turn in the critical humanities investigating the stakes and politics of the data imaginaries and practices that come to order the world and human interactions. The chapter outlines the two competing understandings of crisis reflected in, and reinforced by, representations of Superstorm Sandy. It shows at two data-driven representational tactics used by grassroots organizations in their efforts to introduce the Second Sandy into public discourse and decision making. These include expanding the data set to include things relevant to chronic disasters and changing data aggregation practices to account for missing data as data. The Homeland Security report implies that the federal government would design the database in its standard top-down operating mode and community members would be invited into it, meaning the First Sandy would serve as the interpretive structure underlying the shared infrastructure.
