NEWS,31.10.2012

'The entire country's been watching,' Obama tells Sandy victims

US President Barack Obama and Republican Governor Chris Christie have been touring storm-stricken parts of New Jersey, taking in scenes of flooded roads and burning homes in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.The huge storm crashed ashore on Monday, crippling transportation, knocking out power for millions and killing at least 60 people in nine states with a massive storm surge and rain that caused epic flooding.Obama and Christie, riding in the Marine One presidential helicopter, got an aerial view of some of the hardest-hit areas of the New Jersey shoreline, and afterward the president promised to cut through red tape to help storm victims.From the air in and around the gambling resort of Atlantic City, Obama saw whole streets underwater, beachfront homes swamped by flooding and piers partially blown away.He also saw the still-burning remnants of about eight homes set on fire during the storm, the biggest to hit the US mainland in generations."If your homes aren't too badly damaged we can hopefully get you back in," Obama told residents at an evacuation shelter in the town of Brigantine."The entire country's been watching. Everyone knows how hard Jersey has been hit.""We're not going to tolerate any red tape. We're not going to tolerate any bureaucracy," Obama said.Despite being a top surrogate for Obama's rival Mitt Romney in the November 6 election, Christie has kept up his praise for Obama for federal support during and after the devastating storm.Today he only good words for the Democratic president. "I want to thank the president for being here today," he said.Federal Emergency Management Administration director Craig Fugate is also travelling with Christie and Obama. Sandy has killed at least 60 people in the US Weather warnings remain in place as the centre of the storm moves across Pennsylvania towards Canada The government says the storm may be the most expensive in US history Some 5.9 million properties remain without power Large sections of NYC remain submerged by floodwater Many transport services - including most of the NYC subway - are out of action The New York Marathon will go on Sandy is causing more havoc as it moves north toward Canada. Flooding warnings are in effect in the Great Lakes region and heavy snow has been falling in the Appalachian mountains.Remnants of the storm churned slowly over Pennsylvania on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. Winter storm warnings were in effect from southwestern Pennsylvania to eastern Tennessee.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a media conference mandatory evacuations in the city would not be lifted until the affected buildings had been inspected. He said bridges and tunnels - except for the George Washington Bridge - would be restricted to high-occupancy vehicles for the next several days.Bloomberg also announced a relief package for small business for whom "the storm represents an enormous challenge". He said the package included access to loans of up to $US10,000.Bloomberg said that tap water in NYC had been "tested again and again and again" and was safe to drink.He confirmed that the New York Marathon would go ahead as planned, saying it was a "great event for New York" and he believed those who had died would want it to be held.Asked if he believed there was a link between storms such as Sandy and climate change he said it was safer to assume a link "the consequences of making a mistake in one direction are pretty severe".The New York Stock Exchange reopened on Wednesday US time after being closed for two days. Packed buses took commuters to work with the subway system halted after seawater flooded its tunnels.More than half of all petrol stations in the New York City area and New Jersey were shut, with many running dry.John F Kennedy and Newark airports reopened with limited service after thousands of flights were cancelled, leaving travellers stuck for days.New York's LaGuardia Airport, the third of the airports that serve the nation's busiest airspace, was flooded and remained closed.Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the storm may be the most expensive in US history."Now we are looking at flooding on Lake Erie, possibly Lake Michigan," Napolitano said."We're looking at secondary flooding downstream as rivers fill with the remnants of Sandy and the water has to go somewhere."We are now in recovery mode - response and recovery - we are moving large amounts of resources into the affected areas."It will be one of the most, probably if not the most, extensive and expensive (storms) in our nation's history."One disaster-modeling company said Sandy may have caused up to $US15 billion in insured losses.The storm killed 27 people in New York state, including 22 in New York City, and six each in New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Five other states reported fatalities.Sandy killed 69 people in the Caribbean last week as a hurricane before it slammed into the US east coast with winds of about 130km/h and pushed inland.Battered by a record storm surge of nearly 4.2 metres, large sections of New York City remained submerged under several feet of water on Wednesday.In the city's borough of Staten Island, police used helicopters to pluck stranded residents from rooftops.Across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey, members of the National Guard helped residents pump floodwater from their homes, the city said on Twitter.Chest-high floodwaters rushed into the streets in a flash on Monday night just after the power went out, and by Wednesday morning the water was still knee high in many areas of Hoboken.National Guard vehicles patrolled the streets but emergency vehicles were scarce, witnesses Some 5.9 million homes and businesses in several states remained without power on Wednesday morning, down from a high of nearly 8.5 million, which surpassed the record 8.4 million customers who went dark from last year's Hurricane Irene.In New Jersey, Christie said it could take seven to 10 days before power was restored statewide.In the southern half of Manhattan, a quarter of a million residents remained without power after a transformer explosion at a Consolidated Edison substation on Monday night and the flooding of another. Citywide, some 760,000 customers lacked power on Wednesday.

Hurricane Sandy Disrupts Food Distribution, 'Thousands Of Trucks' In Limbo

 

Thousands of truckloads of food that were headed for stores in the Northeast are stuck on roadsides and in warehouses following the crippling blow Hurricane Sandy dealt to the nation's food distribution system.Though the system is struggling in the face of uncertainty, no one who spoke to HuffPost on Tuesday was concerned about short-term food shortages or a storm-related increase in prices across the region. Still, the hurricane demonstrates just how complex and vulnerable the networks are that deliver America's food supply. "I've got thousands of trucks that are sitting on the East Coast," said Ed Chouinard of Perishable Distribution Solutions (PDS), a nationwide network of meat and perishable cargo delivery trucks based in Chicago. "For our clients, it's almost entirely a question of whether or not they have power, and right now we're calling around everywhere [in New York and New Jersey] and no one's open." Experts and food distributors declined on Tuesday to speculate on the impact Sandy might have on food industry bottom lines, noting that suppliers had ample warning about the coming storm and price gouging on staples like food is illegal. Nonetheless, they were eager to see supply lines return to normal.Chouinard said his company typically delivers New York-bound meat to two wholesale meat markets, the Hunts Point Market and the Brooklyn Market -- neither of which had restored power on Tuesday."I gotta make a decision this afternoon about whether my drivers should leave Chicago with today's shipment," Chouinard said, "but I don't think we're going to be shipping today. We'll reassess later in the week." For residents in some of the most devastated areas, like the Jersey Shore and parts of Queens, N.Y., the PDS meat delivery interruption is just one in a series of food deliveries stalled by the storm, many of which were bound for supermarkets and restaurants that have yet to reopen. Preparations made before the storm, however, mean there is little chance of an outright food shortage, Chouinard said."Most of the grocery stores will have a lot of inventory and backup generators," said Chouinard. "Most warehouses have one or two weeks worth of inventory. But people don't shop much for food if they've got no power. There's more likely to be a surge in demand when the power comes back on, because then everyone's restocking. But there won't be a shortage."New York City had reopened some of its bridges by Wednesday afternoon, though the Holland and Hugh Carey Tunnels remained closed, according to the New York Department of Transportation. Many sections of lower Manhattan remained without power, leaving stores and restaurants unable to safely store food -- even if trucks managed to deliver it.In New Jersey, parts of many major highways remained closed on Tuesday afternoon. At one section of the New Jersey Turnpike near the hard-hit Jersey Shore, entire railroad cars had even been swept onto the highway by the storm surge. Two and a half million people -- or 62 percent of the state -- lost power during the storm. The storm's effect in the Garden State was also evident in the number of supermarkets forced to close during the storm -- the popular regional chain ShopRite listed 97 locations in New Jersey that closed due to the storm. By late Tuesday, some had reopened, including a ShopRite in Garwood, N.J. According to Westfield, N.J. resident Sara Soriente, the store was open "and stocked with not just food, but also ice and firewood."In Pennsylvania, more than 400 roads were still closed on Tuesday afternoon. West Virginia, which was hit by blizzards due to Sandy, had shut down parts of the major highway across the top of the state on Tuesday, along with more than 30 other routes.Large-scale road closures greatly impact food distribution systems, said Charley Wilson, VP of corporate communications at major food distributor Sysco. The company, which supplies products mainly to healthcare facilities, restaurants and schools, has been working around the clock to prepare clients for the storm, Wilson said, "to make sure they had enough staples in advance. You hope that holds them until we can get back on the roads."Wilson said dangerous road conditions, not power outages, were the biggest hindrance to Sysco deliveries in the tri-state area on Tuesday. "As soon as we've been given the signal that there's safe passage and flooding is receding, we'll begin the process of getting food to our partners whether they have power or not," he said. He added that the company has been working closely with disaster relief agencies, "to make sure we're some of the first responders and we're ready to go back in as soon as it's safe."But even quick responses and good planning are no match for the threat posed to perishable foods by a prolonged power outage, said Cary Miller of Food Industry News, a trade publication. A veteran consultant for food services, Miller said that even after power is restored and streets are cleared, "the host of sanitation issues that food service operations will be facing are paralyzing" including repairs, flood clean-up and food safety. When it comes to compromised food, however, it's not just restaurants and supermarkets that need to take precautions against food-borne illnesses. Individuals also need to be extra vigilant, both during and after a power outage, to ensure that food at home is kept cold enough to prevent the spread of bacteria, especially for meat. On Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie released a series of food storage guidelines for residents affected by the storm.But as people in the tri-state area worry this week about delivering, buying, and storing food, in parts of New York City, the food industry was back in business almost immediately following the storm. On Tuesday morning, many bodegas, grocery stores and restaurants in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, opened their doors to customers, in spite of fallen trees that had destroyed cars and storefronts during the night.“We anticipated there might be problems getting food delivered and ordered extra supplies last week,” said Mike Saadi, the owner of Bergen Bagels on Myrtle Avenue, while serving up bagels to a long line of Pratt Institute students. “Everyone needs bagels during a storm,” Saadi said.An Associated Supermarket in Brooklyn was also open and well stocked on Tuesday morning. Fedelia Edwin, an assistant manager, said that while the storm halted a delivery of about 2,000 cases of food from New Jersey, it wasn't enough to deplete stocks. "We still have enough to make it through the rest of the week at least," she said.In Manhattan, the Fairway grocery store on 74th Street and Broadway was crowded with shoppers browsing the aisles, many of whom left with just one or two bags of groceries. Bread, milk, produce, and canned goods were all well stocked, although meats and Grade-A large eggs were harder to come by.Carol Gordon carried about three pounds of ground beef in her shopping basket, a purchase she decided to make when she saw the depleted meat section. “I hadn’t thought about trucks not being able to come in,” she said. “We’re spoiled on the Upper West Side, but this is the worst I’ve seen it. And it’s naive to think we could not be affected.”

US storm damage set to cost $20bn

Bill Keogh, president of disaster estimator Eqecat, confirmed the company's estimates of $5bn to $10bn in insured losses and $10bn to $20bn in total losses from Hurricane Sandy, which came ashore in New Jersey late on Monday and swept northward, knocking out power for more than eight million customers and shutting down four major cities."We think that's about right. ...It will be among the 10 to 15 most damaging storms" that have hit the United States, he told Bloomberg television.He said the assessments on real damages from wind and flooding-related losses and the costs of business shutdowns will take some time to collect."At this stage we're really just getting out facts from the ground... That will take a while."Fitch Ratings said that aside from physical damage from winds and flooding, it expects significant insurance claims from companies over lost business."While many lines of insurance will be affected, including property and auto, there is the potential for significant business interruption and contingent business interruption losses related to the flooding as the affected areas work to restore power and resume operations following the storm," Fitch said."The massive storm is impacting a wide variety of businesses in densely populated areas, including retail, corporate offices, transportation, manufacturing, and energy plants."Economists at IHS Global Insight said they expect the physical losses to top the $15bn of Hurricane Irene of last year."With Sandy being a much larger storm, it is likely to end up causing more flooding damage than its 2011 peer which would increase total damage estimates," said IHS economists Gregory Daco and Nigel Gault in a report on the storm."The commercial shutdown of the East Coast is likely to result in gross domestic product losses that may outweigh infrastructure damages," they added.While some losses to economic production will be recovered in rebuilding spending, they said, not all can be regained.Combining all of the disruptions from Sandy, they said, "early estimates point toward total economic losses of around $30bn to $50bn."That was still small compared to the $120bn in economic damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US Gulf of Mexico coastline in 2005, but still enough to reduce the economic growth rate in the fourth quarter by 0.6% points, they said.

NEWS,30.10.2012

Dozens dead as US reels from devastating superstorm

Millions of people have awoken to scenes of destruction wrought by monster storm Sandy after it smashed into the eastern United States, killing an estimated 35 people in seven states, cutting power to swathes of the nation's most densely populated region, swamping New York's subway system and submerging streets in Manhattan's financial districtSandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the country, dropped just below hurricane status before making landfall on Monday night in New Jersey.The storm interrupted the presidential campaign a week before Election Day posing both risks and opportunities for President Barack Obama as he seeks a second term in a tight race - and closed US financial markets for a second day.As a weakened but still massive storm system continued its trek inland, more than 1 million people in a dozen states were under orders to evacuate. Sandy left behind a trail of damage homes underwater, trees toppled and power lines downed - caused by epic flooding and fierce winds all along the Atlantic coast.The storm is expected to bring snow to eight US states, and Canada is bracing itself for the onslaught, even as its eastern areas have already experienced the storm's force.More than 100,000 Canadians were still without power on Tuesday after the huge storm Sandy toppled trees and power lines in Canada's most populous provinces, killed one person, and halted units at an Ontario refinery.In the storm's wake, Obama issued federal emergency decrees for New York and New Jersey, declaring that "major disasters" existed in both states. One disaster-forecasting company predicted economic losses could ultimately reach $20 billion, only half insured."It's total devastation down there, there are boats in the street five blocks from the ocean," said evacuee Peter Sandomeno, one of the owners of the Broadway Court Motel in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. "That's the worst storm I've ever seen, and I've been there for 11 years.Sandy, which was especially imposing because of its wide-ranging winds, brought a record storm surge of almost 14 feet (4.2 metres) to downtown Manhattan, well above the previous record of 3 metres during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.Two people in New York City reportedly died in the storm - a man in a house hit by a tree and a woman who stepped into an electrified puddle of water. Two other people were killed in suburban Westchester County, north of New York City, and two others were reported killed on suburban Long Island.A motor vehicle death in Massachusetts was blamed in part on the bad weather. Two other people were killed in Maryland in storm-related incidents, state authorities said, and deaths also were reported in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, CNN said.Toronto police also recorded one death a woman hit by flying debris.Sandy killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding US coastal areas.The unprecedented flooding hampered efforts to fight a massive fire that destroyed more than 50 homes in Breezy Point, a private beach community on the Rockaway barrier island in the New York City borough of Queens.New York University hospital was forced to evacuate more than 200 patients, among them babies on respirators in the neonatal intensive care unit, when the backup generator failed. Four of the newborns had to be carried down nine flights of stairs while nurses manually squeezed bags to deliver air to each of the baby's lungs, CNN reported.More than 8.1 million people in several US states were without electricity due to the storm, which crashed ashore late on Monday near the gambling resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey.Obama, who has made every effort to show himself staying on top of the storm situation, faces political danger if the federal government fails to respond well in the storm's aftermath, as was the case with predecessor George W Bush's botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.With Obama and Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney keeping campaigning on hold for a second day instead of launching their final push for votes ahead of the November 6 election, the storm's onslaught added a new level of uncertainty to an already tense, tight race for the White House.In an address on Tuesday local time, Obama said the federal government would do all it could to help local authorities cope with damage caused by the massive storm Sandy.The president, speaking at the national headquarters of the American Red Cross, said the storm, which slammed into some of the most densely populated areas of the eastern United States on Monday, was "not yet over" and that there were still risks."It is still moving north," he said. "There are still communities that could be affected. So I want to emphasise there are still risks of flooding, there are still risks of downed power lines, risks of high winds.""I want everyone leaning forward on this," an aide quoted Obama as telling his disaster-response team in the White House Situation Room. "I don't want to hear that we didn't do something because bureaucracy got in the way."Obama will travel to New Jersey to survey the damage and meet those affected on Wednesday local time.With politics cast aside for the moment, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, heaped praise on the Democratic incumbent for the government's initial storm response."The federal government response has been great," Christie, a staunch Romney supporter, told NBC's Today show. "I was on the phone at midnight again last night with the president personally ... and the president has been outstanding in this."Federal government offices in Washington, which was spared the full force of the storm, were closed for a second day on Tuesday, and schools were shut up and down the East Coast.The storm was plowing westward over south-central Pennsylvania, still packing near hurricane-force winds as strong as 105 km/h, the National Weather Service said.Wind gusts, rain and flooding were likely to extend well into Tuesday, but without the storm's earlier devastating power, said AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Dickey."Overall, the worst has past," Dickey said.The storm's wind field stretched from North Carolina north to the Canadian border and from West Virginia to a point in the Atlantic Ocean halfway to Bermuda, easily one of the largest ever seen, the National Hurricane Center said.Heavy snow fell in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains inland.Water poured into the subway system and tunnels that course under the city, raising concerns that the world's financial capital could be hobbled for days."Hitting at high tide, the strongest surge and the strongest winds all hit at the worst possible time," said Jeffrey Tongue, a meteorologist for the weather service in Brookhaven, New York.Hurricane-force winds as high as 90 miles per hour (145 km per hour) were recorded, he said. "Hopefully it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm," Tongue said.As residents and business owners began the daunting clean-up effort, large sections of New York City remained without power, and transportation in the metropolitan area was at a standstill.It was the worst disaster to strike the storied New York subway system in its 108-year history, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it could take up to four days to get the water out of the flooded train tunnels.New York City's subway is likely to be out of service for another four to five days after monster storm Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg said on Tuesday.The mayor said at a press conference that the city was hoping to resume limited bus service on Tuesday and full bus service on Wednesday.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a separate press conference that all bus fares would be suspended on Tuesday.New York City experienced 23 fires during the storm, with a severe one in Breezy Point, Queens, that burned more than 80 houses.Throughout New York state, 15 people died in connection with the storm, which touched down in New Jersey late on Monday, Cuomo said.Three towns in New Jersey, just west of New York City, were inundated with up to 5 feet (1.5 metres) of water after a levee on the nearby Hackensack River was overtopped or breached, officials said. Rescuers were using boats to aid the marooned residents of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt.In New York, a crane partially collapsed and dangled precariously from a 90-story luxury apartment building under construction in Midtown Manhattan.Much of the city was deserted, as its subways, buses, commuter trains, bridges and airports were closed. Power outages darkened most of downtown Manhattan as well as Westchester County, affecting more than 650,000 customers, power company Consolidated Edison said.Neighborhoods along the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan were underwater, as were low-lying streets in Battery Park near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood.US stock markets were set to be closed on Tuesday. They closed on Monday for the first time since the attacks of September 11, 2001.Most areas in downtown Manhattan were without power on Monday morning. As the sun rose, most of the water in Manhattan's low-lying Battery Park City appeared to have receded.A security guard at 7 World Trade Center, Gregory Baldwin, was catching some rest in his car after laboring overnight against floodwaters that engulfed a nearby office building."The water went inside up to here," he said, pointing to his chest. "The water came shooting down from Battery Park with the gusting wind."In Lower Manhattan, firefighters used inflatable orange boats to rescue utility workers stranded for three hours by rising floodwaters inside a power substation.One of the Con Ed workers pulled from the floodwater, Angelo Amato, said he was part of a crew who had offered to work through the storm."This is what happens when you volunteer," he said.

New York City floods as Sandy slams into eastern US

Millions of people in the eastern United States awoke this morning to flooded homes, fallen trees and widespread power outages caused by the giant storm Sandy, which swamped New York City's subway system and submerged streets in Manhattan's financial district.At least 15 people were reported killed in the United States by Sandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the country, which dropped just below hurricane status before making landfall yesterday night in New Jersey.More than 1 million people in a dozen states were under orders to evacuate as the massive system plowed westward.One disaster forecasting company predicted economic losses could ultimately reach $20 billion, only half insured.The storm interrupted the presidential campaign a week before Election Day and closed U.S. financial markets for two days.Sandy, which was especially imposing because of its wide-ranging winds, brought a record storm surge of almost 4.2 meters to downtown Manhattan, well above the previous record of 3 meters during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.Water poured into the subway system and tunnels that course under the city, raising concerns that the world's financial capital could be hobbled for days."Hitting at high tide, the strongest surge and the strongest winds all hit at the worst possible time," said Jeffrey Tongue, a meteorologist for the weather service in Brookhaven, New York.Hurricane-force winds as high as 145 kph were recorded, he said."Hopefully it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm," Tongue said.Large sections of New York City were without power, and transportation in the metropolitan area was at a standstill."In 108 years our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now," Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota said in a statement.It could take anywhere from 14 hours to four days to get the water out of the flooded subway tunnels, the MTA said."The damage has been geographically very widespread" throughout the subway, bus and commuter train system, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said.The unprecedented flooding hampered efforts to fight a massive fire that destroyed more than 50 homes in Breezy Point, a private beach community on the Rockaway barrier island in the New York City borough of Queens, the Fire Department of New York said.Two people in New York City reportedly died in the storm a man in a house hit by a tree and a woman who stepped into an electrified puddle of water. Two other people were killed in suburban Westchester County, north of New York City, and two others were reported killed on suburban Long Island.A motor vehicle death in Massachusetts was blamed in part on the bad weather. Two other people were killed in Maryland in storm-related incidents, state authorities said, and deaths also were reported in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, CNN said.Toronto police also recorded one death a woman hit by flying debris.More than 7 million people in several states were without electricity due to the storm, which crashed ashore late on Monday near the gambling resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey.The storm was plowing westward over south-central Pennsylvania, still packing near hurricane-force winds as strong as 105 km per hour, the National Weather Service said.Wind gusts, rain and flooding were likely to extend well into Tuesday, but without the storm's earlier devastating power, said AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Dickey."Overall, the worst has past," Dickey said.The storm's wind field stretched from South Carolina north to the Canadian border and from West Virginia to a point in the Atlantic Ocean halfway to Bermuda, easily one of the largest ever seen, the National Hurricane Center said.Heavy snow fell in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains inland.Three towns in New Jersey, just west of New York, were inundated with up to 1.5 metres of water after a levee on the nearby Hackensack River was overtopped or breached, officials said. Rescuers were using boats to aid the marooned residents of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt.In New York, a crane partially collapsed and dangled precariously from a 90-story luxury apartment building under construction in Midtown Manhattan.Much of the city was deserted, as its subways, buses, commuter trains, bridges and airports were closed. Power outages darkened most of downtown Manhattan as well as Westchester County, affecting more than 650,000 customers, power company Consolidated Edison said."This is the largest storm-related outage in our history," said John Miksad, Con Ed's senior vice president for electric operations. The previous record was the more than 200,000 customers hit with outages last year during Hurricane Irene, the utility said.Neighborhoods along the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan were underwater, as were low-lying streets in Battery Park near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood.A security guard at 7 World Trade Center, Gregory Baldwin, was catching some rest in his car after laboring overnight against floodwaters that engulfed a nearby office building."The water went inside up to here," he said, pointing to his chest. "The water came shooting down from Battery Park with the gusting wind."Power and back-up generators failed at New York University Hospital, forcing patients to be moved elsewhere for care.In Lower Manhattan, firefighters used inflatable orange boats to rescue utility workers stranded for three hours by rising floodwaters inside a power substation.One of the Con Ed workers pulled from the floodwater, Angelo Amato, said he was part of a crew who had offered to work through the storm."This is what happens when you volunteer," he said.With a week to go before the election, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney canceled scheduled campaign events. Obama left the campaign trail to return to Washington to monitor the storm and Romney curtailed political events to show respect for the storm's victims.U.S. stock markets were set to be closed today. They closed yesterday for the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.The federal government in Washington was closed for a second day today, and schools were shut up and down the East Coast. Sandy killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding U.S. coastal areas.

NEWS,29.10.2012

Hurricane Sandy - cocktail with a kick

Such a friendly sounding name on the surface, such a rare and devastating cocktail roiling within.You name it and Hurricane Sandy and the posse of titanic weather events accompanying it have them: humongous size, unusual staying power and plenty of high-tide sea water to wreak havoc, perhaps repeatedly, as the full moon and thus high tide roll in with exquisitely bad timing.Sandy already killed 66 people as it churned up from the Caribbean, ripping down houses and trees and wreaking other kinds of havoc in the Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti.But now, as it spins menacingly toward the US East Coast, with landfall expected late on Monday afternoon or Tuesday, it is morphing ominously into something else - from a tropical storm fuelled by warm sea water to a different kind of storm that runs on contrasts in temperature.Of that there is plenty. The core of Sandy is still tropical. But it is wrapped by cold air from a 'nor'easter coming from the north, by cold air coming from the jet stream to the west and by coldish air coming from the south.So Sandy is getting hit from all sides - streams of petrol fuelling a fire.And while most hurricanes tend to drift back east after making landfall, these powerful buffers will make it actually head west, inland, with forecasters saying it will even dump snow."These energetics are allowing it to maintain its strength," said Todd Kimberlain, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.Radar images showing the cowering US East Coast and the white, swirly mass of Sandy are indeed jaw-dropping.Allusions have been made to the so-called "Perfect Storm" of 1991, which inspired a book and a movie of the same name. Meteorologists say some of the same factors are converging this time but in a more fierce fashion, and with greater impact onshore and inland.Low pressureHurricane-force winds stretch out 289km from its core, and weaker, tropical-storm force winds go out a stunning distance of nearly 780km.That's due in part to the extremely low pressure at the core. The wind in a storm like this is caused by the pressure gradient - the difference in pressure at the eye and the edge.If somehow you could stand at the nucleus of Sandy, you would not gasp for breath or otherwise notice the difference, Kimberlain said. The pressure in mile-high Denver, Colorado, for instance  where the air is so thin it takes a few extra minutes of boiling to cook rice - the pressure is even lower.But because Sandy has such staying power, Kimberlain said, "once it hits the coast it will be at one of the lowest pressures on record."Then, there's all that water. The moon will ease into its full phase on Monday afternoon, and with it comes full tide on the eastern seaboard."Heaven and Earth may be aligning to turn Sandy into a real monster, just in time for Halloween," the climate-monitoring website Accuweather.com said on Monday.Storm surge Sandy's storm surge, forecast to cause coastal flooding of up to 2m in some states, like North Carolina, will be bad enough."But superimpose on top that the effect of the full tide and you get a couple extra cm," Kimberlain said.This is one of the most dangerous aspects of this storm, he said. Making matters worse, as Sandy is going to stick around for a few days, this coastal flooding could go through several tidal cycles.Some forecasters are tripping over each other with doomsday predictions."History is being written as an extreme weather event continues to unfold, one which will occupy a place in the annals of weather history as one of the most extraordinary to have affected the United States," senior meteorologist Stu Ostro of The Weather Channel wrote on Monday.He added: "This is an extraordinary situation, and I am not prone to hyperbole."

 

 

Warning of acute danger as hurricane edges closer

Hurricane Sandy has begun battering the densely populated East Coast of the US, shutting down transportation, forcing evacuations in flood-prone areas and interrupting the presidential campaign.Fierce winds and flooding were expected along hundreds of miles of Atlantic coast and heavy snows were forecast farther inland at higher elevations when the centre of the storm moves ashore on Monday evening near Atlantic City, New Jersey.US stock markets closed for the first time since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the government in Washington shut down and school was cancelled up and down the East Coast.About 150,000 customers were without power by midday  and millions more could lose electricity."This is going to be a big and powerful storm and all across the Eastern Seaboard I think everybody is taking the appropriate preparations," President Barack Obama said at the White House.States of emergency State governors from Virginia to Massachusetts warned of the acute danger from the storm for the 60 million residents in its path.Nine states have declared a state of emergency. Experts said economic losses from the storm could reach $US20 billion ($24bn)."There will undoubtedly be some deaths that are caused by the intensity of this storm, by the floods, by the tidal surge, by the waves.The more responsibly citizens act, the fewer people will die," Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley told reporters.Off North Carolina, the US Coast Guard rescued 14 of the 16 crew members who abandoned the replica tall ship HMS Bounty, using helicopters to lift them from life rafts.The Coast Guard continued to search for the two missing crew members. The US coastguard said the boat had reportedly sunk, though the mast was still visible.'Extremely dangerous' At 2pm Monday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the Category 1 storm had strengthened as it turned toward the coast and was moving at 44kph. Tropical storm force winds were already occurring over portions of the mid-Atlantic states, it said.The centre said landfall was "expected early this evening"."The combination of an extremely dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters," it said.Sandy was expected to bring a coastal hurricane winds and heavy snow in the Appalachian Mountains, the NHC said.In Fairfield, a Connecticut coastal town and major commuter point into Manhattan, police cruisers blocked the main road leading to the beaches and yellow police tape cordoned off rocky side entrances."People are definitely not taking this seriously enough," police officer Tiffany Barrett, 38, said. "Our worst fear is something like Katrina and we can't get to people."Some 400km to the south, several feet of water flooded streets in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, which could be right in the target zone of the storm.Police knocked on doors, reminding people there was a mandatory evacuation. While the police took names, they allowed residents to stay at their own risk.Rare 'super storm' Forecasters said Sandy was a rare, hybrid "super storm" created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around a tropical storm.The combination of those two storms would have been bad enough, but meteorologists said there was a third storm at play  a system coming down from Canada that would effectively trap the hurricane-nor'easter combo and hold it in place, amplifying the inland flooding effects.Moreover, the storm was coming ashore at high tide, which was pulled even higher by a full moon.The storm interrupted the presidential campaign with eight days to the election.Obama canceled a campaign event in Florida on Monday so he could return to Washington and monitor the US government's response to the storm.Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney canceled campaign stops on Monday night and Tuesday.While Sandy does not pack the punch of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, it has been gathering strength as it approaches the US coast.It killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding US coastal areas as it moved north.Winds were at a maximum of 150kph, the NHC said in its 2pm report, increasing throughout the day.Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 280km from the centre, while tropical storm-force winds reached as far as 780km it said.Transit New York and other cities and towns closed their transit systems and schools, ordering mass evacuations from low-lying areas ahead of a storm surge that could reach as high as 3.4 metres.By early Monday water was already topping the seawall in Manhattan's Battery Park City, one of the areas evacuated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.He ordered 375,000 New Yorkers to evacuate and told those who remained to leave immediately. "Conditions are deteriorating rapidly and the window for you getting out safely is closing."All US stock markets were closed on Monday and possibly Tuesday, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange said, reversing an earlier plan that would have kept electronic trading going on Monday.The United Nations, Broadway theaters and New Jersey casinos were forced to close, and more than two-thirds of the East Coast's oil refining capacity was in the process of shutting down.Airlines cancelled flights, bridges and tunnels closed, and national passenger rail operator Amtrak suspended nearly all service on the East Coast.The US government told non-emergency workers in Washington, DC, to stay home.The storms could cause up to 30cm of rain in some areas, as well as up to one metre of snowfall in the Appalachian Mountains from West Virginia to Kentucky.While Sandy's 150 kph winds were not overwhelming for a hurricane, its exceptional size means the winds could last as long as two days.

NY businesses hunker down, close for Sandy's arrival

They say that New York is the city that never sleeps, but throughout Manhattan today, it seemed as if many businesses were preparing to tuck in, perhaps for days.A monster of a hurricane - potentially the largest on record - was barreling toward the city, threatening business owners with catastrophic damages, biblical flooding and power outages that could last for days.In Times Square, restaurants, electronics shops and perfumeries were sending employees home before 7 pm, when the city's subways were set to close.It was the same throughout Midtown, along Madison Avenue and down into the Bohemian enclave of Greenwich Village, where many of famed Bleeker Street's shops were closing early - and indefinitely."After Monday, employees will be on call," said Jerome Ison, a clerk at Burberry.At Magnolia Bakery, the cupcakes shop made famous by the TV show "Sex and the City," the ovens were turned off around noon."We won't have any extra cupcakes," a worker said.Throughout Manhattan, the pretzel and hot dog vendors were packing up too, often to travel across bridges and tunnels to New Jersey, Brooklyn and Staten Island."Everybody's leaving," said peanut purveyor Miah Daras of the Bronx. "For me, this is losing $300 a day."The mad dash out of Manhattan was spurred by the shut down of mass transit today. The loss of transportation illustrated a socio-economic divide - there are many wealthy residents of Manhattan.Those who serve them tend to live elsewhere - the outer boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx.Without public transit, and with the possibility of bridges and tunnels being closed, cutting off vehicular traffic, those two populations were going to be apart from one another. And who knew for how long?"I need my workers to get home safely," said health food deli owner Gale Shim.Heavy rain, high winds Shim decided to stay behind and deal with the situation himself, meaning he'd bunk down in his deli. He had been hearing the news all week - 30cm of rain, 120km/h winds - though was happy he has insurance for food spoilage.But like a lot of New York business owners, it was the flooding that worried him. He stood in the back of the deli's kitchen, surrounded by cases of the hipster health drink Kombucha, and pointed to a place in the ceiling where rainwater routinely surges in.His plan was to fight off the expected deluge with a sump pump, though he didn't know what he would do if the electricity went out. He also hadn't figured out how to get a blanket if he got cold.On the Upper West Side, lines wrapped around the block at grocery store Trader Joe's. At Abingdon Deli, the cheese and meat shelves had been picked clean.Throughout the day, more and more closings were announced.But New Yorkers  who survived the September 11 attacks, a blackout in 2003 and Hurricane Irene last year can be hard to rattle. Some delighted in being contrarians.As many stocked their fridges with water and food, others blew the whole thing off."You know what I have in my fridge?" said Chris Conway, a 41-year-old who lives in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. "Four different kinds of Tabasco and one jar of A-1 steak sauce."There were also plenty of businesses that were daring the storm to bother them."We'll be open, no matter what," said Clarence Ricketts, who manages the 24-hour Walgreens at Times Square. The building has its own in-house engineer, a military-grade power generator and a full staff in the store.Ricketts will pay for cab fare if an employee needs to go home, but he's cleared out space in the store's fifth-floor offices and has air mattresses for workers."We sell air mattresses," he said. "So however many workers need, we have."One business that storms treat positively well  bars.Downtown Manhattan's Corner Bistro was full today. The Bistro, legendary for its salty bartenders and tender burgers, stayed open throughout Hurricane Irene.During the 2003 blackout, one manager tried to close the bar - and was fired."The Bistro only closes on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that's it," said bartender Jeff Sheehan.Justice never rests While Hurricane Sandy may shut down much of the federal government and halt public transport in Washington DCtomorrow, it will be business as usual at the US Supreme Court, where justices - appointed for life - pride themselves in all manner of staying power.The country's highest court is keeping to its oral-argument schedule and intends to hear cases through Wednesday, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said today."It was the decision of the chief justice, in consultation with court officials," Arberg said, in a reference to Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed in 2005.There is a tradition to this. In 1996, when a major snowstorm closed the federal government and brought Washington DC, to a near standstill, court arguments went on. Then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a Wisconsin native undeterred by snow and ruled by a strong sense of punctuality, made sure business that January 8 began on schedule.Roberts, 57, who grew up in Indiana, was once a law clerk to Rehnquist, who died in 2005.The justices are starting their second two-week round of arguments for the annual term, beginning tomorrow with a foreign intelligence wiretap case and a copyright dispute. Non-emergency federal workers have been told to stay home.Arberg said court officials would be monitoring the hurricane to determine whether safety factors might require a change in the schedule. Two cases are scheduled for each of the following two days.During the January 1996 snowstorm, court officials picked up some of the justices in four-wheel-drive vehicles. Seven of the nine arrived on time for the 10 am opening session. Justice David Souter eventually made it to the bench that Monday.Justice John Paul Stevens, who was in Florida at the time, did not. Both have since retired.Arberg said she was unaware of any justices who would not make it in on Monday.

Obama: Hurricane Sandy Will Be 'Big And Powerful,' But We're Ready

President Barack Obama on Monday expressed confidence that his administration is prepared to take on Hurricane Sandy and said he's not concerned about the impact it will have on the elections.During brief remarks at the White House, Obama said he has been working with the Departments of Energy, Transportation, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to coordinate for what is "obviously" going to be a "big and powerful storm." He said the center of the storm is expected to make landfall along the East Coast on Monday night. But because of its size, millions of people across the country will be affected, particularly when it comes to power outages and transportation."The most important message that I have for the public right now is, 'Please listen to what your state and local officials are saying,'' Obama said. "When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. Do not delay. Don't pause. Don't question the instructions being given because this is a serious storm and could potentially have fatal consequences."Obama gave his remarks right after coming out of a Situation Room briefing on the storm. Among those in the meeting, via video teleconference, were Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Energy Secretary Chu and National Hurricane Center Director Richard Knabb.The president emphasized that he has been working with state and local officials to ensure everybody has the resources they need, including food, water and electricity generators."At this point, there are no unmet needs," Obama said. Straddling the line between his presidency and his candidacy for reelection, Obama added that "the great thing about America" is that people pull together in tough times. "We set aside whatever issues we may have otherwise to respond appropriately and with swiftness, and that's exactly what I anticipate is going to happen here."Asked by a reporter if he is worried about the storm affecting the election, he said no."I am not worried at this point about the impact on the election. I am worried about the impact on families. I am worried about the impact on our firstresponders. I am worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation," Obama said. "The election will take care of itself next week."

NEWS,28.10.2012

US super storm 'big and serious' - Obama

President Barack Obama warned on Sunday that Hurricane Sandy was a "serious and big storm" and called on East Coast residents to heed the orders of state and local officials to protect themselves from its onslaught. Obama, speaking after a briefing at the federal government's storm response center in Washington, said officials had assured him that they had all the resources they needed in place, and he stressed that "it is important for us to respond big and to respond fast" to the hurricane's onslaught. "We're going to cut through red tape and we're not going to get bogged down in a lot of rules," said Obama, who was having to juggle both is re-election bid and his efforts to stay on top of the storm's impact just nine days before Election Day.Obama is warning that the hurricane will be slow-moving and that it will pose additional problemsNew York is bracing itself for the full force of Hurricane Sandy, shutting down public transport systems throughout the city. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has also ordered public schools to close on Monday and mandatory evacuations in some areas. Bloomberg said during a press conference that areas of the city from City Island to Coney Island to Battery Park City were under mandatory evacuation because of approaching Hurricane Sandy. He said that the mandatory evacuation applies to people in Zone A, which covers coastal areas. State of emergencies have been declared in eastern parts of America as the hurricane draws closer. Sandy could have 'brutal impact' Hurricane Sandy could be the biggest storm to hit the United States mainland when it comes ashore on Monday night, bringing strong winds and dangerous flooding to the East Coast from the mid-Atlantic states to New England, forecasters said on Sunday. Sandy could have a brutal impact on major cities in the target zone like Boston, New York, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, one of the most densely populated regions of the country.New York City's subway, bus and train service will be suspended on Sunday evening, which could bring the country's financial nerve center to a standstill.The major Wall Street exchanges said they planned to open as usual on Monday because they have alternate facilities they can use.The Obama administration estimated it could affect 50 million people, and the storm was already disrupting transportation systems.More than 700 flights, including international ones, were cancelled on Sunday and nearly 2,500 more were cancelled for Monday, FlightAware.com said.Forecasters said Sandy was a rare, hybrid "super storm" created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around a tropical storm, possibly causing up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in some areas, as well as heavy snowfall inland."The size of this alone, affecting a heavily populated area, is going to be history making," said Jeff Masters, a hurricane specialist who writes a blog posted on the Weather Underground.New Jersey casinos were ordered to close. New Jersey officials were weighing whether to shut down that state's bus and rail systems, and emergency officials warned of widespread power outages that could last for days."We're just asking people to be patient and be ready for a long haul. But we have a very aggressive power restoration program in place and I think we're ready," Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell told the CNN program "State of the Union."On its current projected track, Sandy is most likely to make landfall between in the New York/New Jersey area and head inland to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, forecasters said.Exceptionally wide storm Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm's impact would be felt far from the centre.While Sandy's 75 mph (120 kph) winds were not overwhelming for a hurricane, its width made it exceptional. Hurricane-force winds extended 175 miles (280 km) from its center while its lesser tropical storm-force winds spanned 1,040 miles (1,670 km) in diameter. It was not expected to strengthen but was expected to broaden.At high tide, the storm could bring a surge of seawater up to 11 feet (3.4 meters) above normal levels to Long Island Sound and New York Harbor."Given the large wind field associated with Sandy, elevated water levels could span multiple tide cycles, resulting in repeated and extended periods of coastal and bayside flooding," the forecasters said.Sandy was centered about 260 miles (420 km) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, early on Sunday, the hurricane center said. The storm pushed seawater up over the barrier islands off North Carolina known as the Outer Banks."It's flooded all over the village," longtime Ocracoke Island resident Kathleen O'Neal told Reuters via telephone. "I would say between a foot and two feet of water."Sandy was moving over the Atlantic parallel to the US coast at 10 mph (17 kph), but was forecast to make a tight westward turn toward the US coast on Sunday night.Tropical storm conditions were spreading across the coast of North Carolina on Sunday morning and gale-force winds are forecast to begin affecting Washington, New York and southern New England by Monday.Record breaker Sandy could be the largest storm to hit the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) website.Sandy killed at least 66 people as it made its way through the Caribbean islands, including 51 in Haiti, mostly from flash flooding and mudslides, according to authorities.The approaching storm forced a change of plans for both presidential candidates ahead of the Nov. 6 election. The White House said President Barack Obama canceled a campaign appearance in Virginia on Monday and another stop in Colorado on Tuesday, and will instead monitor the storm from Washington.Republican challenger Mitt Romney rescheduled campaign events planned for Virginia on Sunday and was flying to Ohio instead.All along the U.S. coast, worried residents packed stores, buying generators, candles, food and other supplies in anticipation of power outages. Some local governments announced schools would be closed on Monday and Tuesday."They're freaking out," said Joe Dautel, a clerk at a hardware store in Glenside, Pennsylvania. "I'm selling people four, five, six packs of batteries - when I had them."

Hurricane Sandy Megastorm: New Jersey, Delaware And More States Scramble Before Storm

Tens of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate coastal areas Sunday as big cities and small towns across the U.S. Northeast braced for the onslaught of a superstorm threatening some 60 million people along the most heavily populated corridor in the nation."The time for preparing and talking is about over," Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate warned as a monster Hurricane Sandy headed up the Atlantic Coast on a collision course with two other weather systems. "People need to be acting now."New York City announced its subways, buses and trains would stop running Sunday night, and its 1.1 million-student school system would be closed on Monday. Mayor Michael Bloomberg also ordered the evacuation of part of lower Manhattan and other low-lying neighborhoods."If you don't evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you," Bloomberg said. "This is a serious and dangerous storm."Tens of thousands of people along the coast in Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut and other threatened areas were also under orders to clear out because of as much as a foot (30 centimeters) of rain, punishing winds of 80 mph (130 kph), and a potentially deadly tidal surge of 4 to 8 feet (1.2 to 2.4 meters)Sandy was headed north from the Caribbean, where it left at least 65 people dead, mostly in Haiti, and was expected to hook left toward the mid-Atlantic coast and come ashore late Monday or early Tuesday, most likely in New Jersey, colliding with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.Forecasters warned that the resulting megastorm could wreak havoc over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers)from the East Coast to the Great Lakes. Parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina could get snow 2 feet (60 centimeters) or more in places.The danger was hardly limited to coastal areas, with worried about inland flooding. They also warned that the rain could saturate the ground, causing trees to topple onto power lines and cause blackouts that could last for several days.States of emergency were declared from North Carolina, where gusty winds whipped steady rain on Sunday morning, to Connecticut. Delaware ordered 50,000 people in coastal communities to clear out by 8 p.m. Sunday.Officials in New York City were particularly worried about the possibility of subway flooding. The city closed the subways before Hurricane Irene last year, and a Columbia University study predicted that an Irene surge just 1 foot (30 centimeters) higher would have paralyzed lower Manhattan.Sandy was at Category 1 strength, packing 75 mph (120 kph) winds, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and moving northeast at 14 mph (22.5 kph) as of 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was about 575 miles (925 kilometers) south of New York City.The storm was expected to continue moving parallel to the Southeast coast most of the day and approach the coast of the mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, before reaching southern New England later in the week.The storm was so big, however, and the convergence of the three storms so rare, that "we just can't pinpoint who is going to get the worst of it," said Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.Bobbie Foote said she would heed an evacuation order Sunday for south Wilmington, Delaware, and would take shelter at her daughter's home in nearby Newark."My daughter insists that I leave this time," said Foote, a 58-year-old fitness coach. It will be the first time she has fled a storm threatening the apartment building that has been her home for at least 40 years in the working-class neighborhood near the Delaware River.Foote said she stayed last year when flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Irene blocked streets at either end of the neighborhood. She said her daughter wouldn't stand for her getting trapped that way again."She said I should never put myself in that predicament where I cannot get in or out of where I live," Foote said.Amtrak began canceling passenger train service Saturday night to parts of the East Coast, including between Washington and New York. Airlines started moving planes out of airports to avoid damage and added Sunday flights out of New York and Washington in preparation for flight cancellations on Monday.The Virginia National Guard was authorized to call up to 500 troops to active duty for debris removal and road-clearing, while homeowners stacked sandbags at their front doors in coastal towns.President Barack Obama was monitoring the storm and working with state and locals governments to make sure they get the resources needed to prepare, administration officials said.In North Carolina's Outer Banks, there was some scattered, minor flooding at daybreak Sunday on the beach road in Nags Head. The bad weather could pick up there later in the day, with the major concerns being rising tides and pounding waves.In New Jersey, hundreds of coastal residents started moving inland.Gov. Chris Christie's emergency declaration will force the shutdown of Atlantic City's 12 casinos for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of legalized gambling there. City officials said they would begin evacuating the gambling hub's 30,000 residents at noon Sunday, busing them to mainland shelters and schools.The storm also forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules. Romney scrapped plans to campaign Sunday in Virginia and switched his schedule for the day to Ohio. First lady Michelle Obama canceled an appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a planned Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night to beat the storm. He also canceled appearances in Northern Virginia on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday.Witlet Maceno, an emergency room nurse working at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital, was headed home to Staten Island on Sunday morning after his overnight shift. He said he was going home to check on his parents, visiting from Atlanta, before he returned to work Sunday evening."I'm making sure they're OK, that they have water and food, and that the windows are shut tight," he said. "And I'm going to remove stuff outside that could go flying into the windows" of his street-level apartment.The Weather Channel is calling the storm "one which will occupy a place in the annals of weather history as one of the most extraordinary to have affected the United States." According to TWC meteorologist Stu Ostro, residents in areas that are vulnerable to the storm should take every precaution possible with the "utmost urgency." Here's why it's so bad, Ostro says: A meteorologically mind-boggling combination of ingredients is coming together: one of the largest expanses of tropical storm (gale) force winds on record with a tropical or subtropical cyclone in the Atlantic or for that matter anywhere else in the world; a track of the center making a sharp left turn in direction of movement toward New Jersey in a way that is unprecedented in the historical database, as it gets blocked from moving out to sea by a pattern that includes an exceptionally strong ridge of high pressure aloft near Greenland; a "warm-core" tropical cyclone embedded within a larger, nor'easter-like circulation; and eventually tropical moisture and arctic air combining to produce heavy snow in interior high elevations. This is an extraordinary situation, and I am not prone to hyperbole.As Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Sunday, New York City's public schools the nation's largest public school system will be closed Monday. According to a statement from New York City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, the city's 1.1 million students might also be off on Tuesday. "Due to anticipated inclement weather conditions from Hurricane Sandy, all New York City public schools will be closed to students tomorrow, October 29," Walcott said in a statement. "Administrative offices will be open. All after-school activities and Public Schools Athletic League events will also be cancelled. We are asking that school staff and employees assigned to a shelter site to report to their posts. "A determination about whether schools will open on Tuesday will be made tomorrow, so please continue to monitor the news and nyc.gov for updates to the City's preparations and response."Today on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod said that Hurricane Sandy was "a cause of concern" for the campaign. "Obviously we want unfettered access to the polls because we believe that the more people come out, the better we're going to do, and so to the extent that it makes it harder, you know, that's a source of concern," he said. He added that the best thing that President's team can do is "focus on how we can help people during this storm and hope that it all clears out and that by the next weekend we'll be free of it and people can focus on the election." President Barack Obama has spent months trying to balance his re-election bid with running the government. Now, just when his campaign needs him the most, with little more than a week before the election, his official job is beckoning. Republican challenger Mitt Romney, too, faces questions about how to conduct his campaign as a superstorm charges toward the East Coast. But as president, it's Obama who oversees the federal government's preparations for the looming storm and it's Obama who will bear the responsibility for any missteps. With that in mind, Obama scrapped campaign events Monday night and Tuesday morning. He planned to return to the White House late Monday to monitor the storm and the government's response. "This is an example, yet again, of the president having to put his responsibilities as commander in chief and as leader of the country first, while at the same time he pursues his responsibilities as a candidate for re-election," Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, told reporters traveling with Obama to a campaign event Saturday in New Hampshire.

Superstorm emergency declared in US

Governors from North Carolina to Connecticut declared states of emergency and Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal communities as Hurricane Sandy lumbered north from the Caribbean  where it left nearly 60 dead  to threaten the eastern US with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow.Officials warned millions in coastal areas to get out of the way of the massive storm.Sandy was expected to affect up to 60 million people when it meets two other powerful winter storms. Experts said it didn't matter how strong the storm was when it hit land: The rare hybrid that follows will cause havoc over 1 300km from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.President Barack Obama was monitoring the storm and working with state and locals governments to make sure they get the resources needed to prepare, administration officials said.Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the storm was a threat to the region's interior, not just coastal areas: "This is a very large area," he said.New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declared a state of emergency on Saturday as hundreds of coastal residents started moving inland and the state was set to close its casinos. New York's governor was considering shutting down the subways to avoid flooding and half a dozen states warned residents to prepare for several days of lost power.Sandy was at Category 1 strength, packing 120km/h winds, about 418km southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and moving northeast at 16km/h as of 08:00 Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Centre in Miami. It was about 636km south of New York City.The storm was expected to continue moving parallel to the Southeast coast most of the day and approach the coast of the mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, before reaching southern New England later in the week.The storm forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules. Romney scrapped plans to campaign Sunday in the swing state of Virginia and switched his schedule for the day to Ohio. First lady Michelle Obama cancelled an appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a planned on Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night to beat the storm.In Ship Bottom, just north of Atlantic City, Alice and Giovanni Stockton-Rossini spent Saturday packing clothing in the back yard of their home, a few hundred metres from the ocean on Long Beach Island. Their neighbourhood was under a voluntary evacuation order, but they didn't need to be forced."It's really frightening," Alice Stockton-Rossi said. "But you know how many times they tell you, 'This is it, it's really coming and it's really the big one' and then it turns out not to be? I'm afraid people will tune it out because of all the false alarms before, and the one time you need to take it seriously, you won't. This one might be the one."What makes the storm so dangerous and unusual is that it is coming at the tail end of hurricane season and the beginning of winter storm season, "so it's kind of taking something from both," said Jeff Masters, director of the private service Weather Underground.Masters said the storm could be bigger than the worst East Coast storm on record - the 1938 New England hurricane known as the Long Island Express, which killed nearly 800 people. Experts said to expect high winds over 1 300km and up to 60cm of snow as far inland as West Virginia.The storm was so big, and the convergence of the three storms so rare, that "we just can't pinpoint who is going to get the worst of it," said Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Centre in Miami.Officials are particularly worried about the possibility of subway flooding in New York City, said Uccellini.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to prepare to shut the city's subways, buses and suburban trains by Sunday, but delayed making a final decision. The city shut the subways down before last year's Hurricane Irene, and a Columbia University study predicted that an Irene surge just 30cm higher would have paralysed lower Manhattan.As the storm swirled away toward the US East Coast, officials in the Caribbean reported that the hurricane cost at least 58 lives in addition to destroying or badly damaging thousands of homes.While Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas took direct hits from the storm, the majority of deaths and most extensive damage was in impoverished Haiti. The country's ramshackle housing and denuded hillsides are especially vulnerable to flooding when rains come.Up and down the US East Coast and far inland, officials urged residents and businesses to prepare in big ways and little.The Virginia National Guard was authorized to call up to 500 troops to active duty for debris removal and road-clearing, while homeowners stacked sandbags at their front doors in coastal towns.Utility officials warned rains could saturate the ground, causing trees to topple into power lines, and told residents to prepare for several days at home without power. "We're facing a very real possibility of widespread, prolonged power outages," said Ruth Miller, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.Warren Ellis, who was on an annual fishing pilgrimage on North Carolina's Outer Banks, didn't act fast enough to get home.Ellis' 73-year-old father, Steven, managed to get off uninhabitedPortsmouth Island near Cape Hatteras by ferry Friday. But the son and his 3m camper got stranded when high winds and surf forced state officials to suspend service Saturday."We might not get off here until Tuesday or Wednesday, which doesn't hurt my feelings that much," said Ellis, 44, of Ammissville, Virginia "Because the fishing's going to be really good after this storm."Last year, Hurricane Irene poked a new inlet through the island, cutting the only road off Hatteras Island for about 4 000.In New Jersey, Christie's emergency declaration will force the shutdown of Atlantic City's 12 casinos for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of legalized gambling here. The approach of Hurricane Irene shut down the casinos for three days last August.Atlantic City officials said they would begin evacuating the gambling hub's 30 000 residents at noon Sunday, busing them to mainland shelters and schools.

 

Evacuations, schools close as US super storm bears down

New York is bracing itself for the full force of Hurricane Sandy, closing schools and shutting down public transport systems throughout the city.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is ordering public schools to close on Monday and has ordered mandatory evacuations in some areas.Bloomberg said during a press conference that areas of the city from City Island to Coney Island to Battery Park City were under mandatory evacuation because of approaching Hurricane Sandy.He said that the mandatory evacuation applies to people in Zone A, which covers coastal areas.State of emergencies have been declared in eastern parts of america as the hurricane draws closer.Hurricane Sandy could be the biggest storm to hit the United States mainland when it comes ashore on Monday night, bringing strong winds and dangerous flooding to the East Coast from the mid-Atlantic states to New England, forecasters said on Sunday.Sandy could have a brutal impact on major cities in the target zone like Boston, New York, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, one of the most densely populated regions of the country.New York City's subway, bus and train service will be suspended on Sunday evening, which could bring the country's financial nerve center to a standstill.The major Wall Street exchanges said they planned to open as usual on Monday because they have alternate facilities they can use.The Obama administration estimated it could affect 50 million people, and the storm was already disrupting transportation systems.More than 700 flights, including international ones, were cancelled on Sunday and nearly 2,500 more were cancelled for Monday, FlightAware.com said.Forecasters said Sandy was a rare, hybrid "super storm" created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around a tropical storm, possibly causing up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in some areas, as well as heavy snowfall inland."The size of this alone, affecting a heavily populated area, is going to be history making," said Jeff Masters, a hurricane specialist who writes a blog posted on the Weather Underground. New Jersey casinos were ordered to close. New Jersey officials were weighing whether to shut down that state's bus and rail systems, and emergency officials warned of widespread power outages that could last for days."We're just asking people to be patient and be ready for a long haul. But we have a very aggressive power restoration program in place and I think we're ready," Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell told the CNN program "State of the Union."On its current projected track, Sandy is most likely to make landfall between in the New York/New Jersey area and head inland to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, forecasters said.Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm's impact would be felt far from the centre.While Sandy's 75 mph (120 kph) winds were not overwhelming for a hurricane, its width made it exceptional. Hurricane-force winds extended 175 miles (280 km) from its center while its lesser tropical storm-force winds spanned 1,040 miles (1,670 km) in diameter. It was not expected to strengthen but was expected to broaden.At high tide, the storm could bring a surge of seawater up to 11 feet (3.4 meters) above normal levels to Long Island Sound and New York Harbor."Given the large wind field associated with Sandy, elevated water levels could span multiple tide cycles, resulting in repeated and extended periods of coastal and bayside flooding," the forecasters said.Sandy was centered about 260 miles (420 km) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, early on Sunday, the hurricane center said. The storm pushed seawater up over the barrier islands off North Carolina known as the Outer Banks."It's flooded all over the village," longtime Ocracoke Island resident Kathleen O'Neal told Reuters via telephone. "I would say between a foot and two feet of water."Sandy was moving over the Atlantic parallel to the US coast at 10 mph (17 kph), but was forecast to make a tight westward turn toward the US coast on Sunday night.Tropical storm conditions were spreading across the coast of North Carolina on Sunday morning and gale-force winds are forecast to begin affecting Washington, New York and southern New England by Monday.Sandy could be the largest storm to hit the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) website.Sandy killed at least 66 people as it made its way through the Caribbean islands, including 51 in Haiti, mostly from flash flooding and mudslides, according to authorities.The approaching storm forced a change of plans for both presidential candidates ahead of the Nov. 6 election. The White House said President Barack Obama canceled a campaign appearance in Virginia on Monday and another stop in Colorado on Tuesday, and will instead monitor the storm from Washington. Republican challenger Mitt Romney rescheduled campaign events planned for Virginia on Sunday and was flying to Ohio instead.All along the U.S. coast, worried residents packed stores, buying generators, candles, food and other supplies in anticipation of power outages. Some local governments announced schools would be closed on Monday and Tuesday."They're freaking out," said Joe Dautel, a clerk at a hardware store in Glenside, Pennsylvania. "I'm selling people four, five, six packs of batteries - when I had them."

Hurricane-force winds lash France

Hurricane-force winds lashed southern France on Sunday, damaging a ferry off Marseille and leading to the disappearance of two people, including a British boy who was out cycling.Winds packing up to 130km/h battered several areas in the south, including the coastal region of Herault, where a 12-year-old British boy and a windsurfer were reported missing since Saturday.Heavy snow in the French Alps meanwhile caused power cuts to more than 50 000 households and created traffic snarls as cars were blocked on roads in a busy weekend leading up to All Saints' Day.The strong winds in the south badly damaged a large ferry owned by the National Corsican Company, the "Napoleon Bonaparte", which crashed against the dock.The flooded vessel, which can carry 2 650 passengers and 708 vehicles, was still tilted on one side in the harbour on Sunday afternoon and was waiting to be "stabilised", Hugues Parant, the prefect of Marseille, told AFP.In the nearby Herault region, the missing British boy's cycle was found and he was thought to have been "swept away" by the strong winds, said Xavier Tarabeux, the prosecutor of the southern port city of Toulon.The boy went missing in the tourist town of Hyeres on Saturday, said its mayor, Jacques Politi. The 12-year-old, whose mother is French, had just arrived with his parents and siblings to spend the holidays.A 26-year-old windsurfer was also missing at a nearby beach. Search operations were on, with police teams and firefighters as well as locals scouring the area, backed up by a helicopter to trace the missing.The winds felled trees and about 5 000 households in the area had no power supplies due to snapped transmission lines.Heavy snow on Sunday blanketed the French Alps and more than 50 000 houses had no electricity, the state power supplier said.Forty cars were blocked in the Alpine Isere region as they were not equipped with snow tyres, officials said. Those stranded overnight were housed in a nearby gymnasium.