Hurricane Sandy slammed the US east coast on Monday night, knocking out power for millions, disrupting transportation, and prompting an alert at a nuclear plant.
The superstorm was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone just before making landfall around 8pm near Atlantic City, New Jersey, with sustained winds of 80mph.
Oyster Creek nuclear power plant issued a warning after high water levels were recorded. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said water levels at the New Jersey facility had exceeded “high water level criteria” at about 8.45pm. The plant was shut for refuelling last week, but spent radioactive fuel stored at the site can still potentially cause problems.
Late on Monday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the worst of the rain and wind had passed the city. But he warned that flooding could still be a major problem.
Consolidated Edison, the power utility, reported 250,000 outages in Manhattan alone. At least 3m people along the storm path lost power, according to Reuters. Schools, financial markets and most businesses were set to remain closed on Tuesday as public transit, trains and flights were halted. US media reported that at least 11 people have been reported dead, mostly due to trees falling on houses.
The US presidential campaign also paused to allow President Barack Obama to address the nation on the storm. Before the storm came ashore, Mr Obama warned the public that it could take a long time to clean up and several days for emergency services to restore power.
“This is going to be a slow-moving process through a wide swath of the country,” he said.
In New York City, Manhattan neighbourhoods were all experiencing heavy floods. Mr Bloomberg warned that all cars, including taxis, should stay off the road to allow emergency vehicles to get to those who needed help. By 8pm the Battery Tunnel, which connects Manhattan to Brooklyn, was nearly flooded.
Water was also pouring into some subway stations, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said. The headquarters of the New York Fire Department was evacuated as flooding threatened the building.
Nearly 14,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday and Monday and public transport systems were shut down all over the east coast. All New York area airports were closed due to flooding. Airports as far away as Cleveland, Ohio were also closing.
In Atlantic City and the barrier islands of New Jersey, residents who did not leave were told by governor Chris Christie that they could not be rescued until Tuesday morning at the earliest.
“Do not underestimate this storm,” said Andrew Cuomo, governor of neighbouring New York state. “These forecasts for the surge are really extraordinary. They are talking about surges that we have not seen before.”
As the storm’s high winds battered the coast all day, power companies warned that millions of homes could lose electricity for days.
Local media showed the Hudson River lapping over promenades in lower Manhattan and flooded streets in low-lying areas of Brooklyn and Queens.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said flooding on the partially closed FDR Drive on Manhattan’s east side was already as bad as during tropical storm Irene in August 2011.
In the Financial District, the New York Stock Exchange dismantled security posts around the building and piled sandbags in shuttered doorways. The scene was the same at the New York Mercantile Exchange, whose revolving doors were blocked shut against potential gusts and flood water.
One conspicuous hive of activity was Goldman Sachs, whose steel and glass headquarters is in Battery Park City, an area highly susceptible to flooding and which was under evacuation orders. Dozens of workers piled hundreds of sandbags, which had arrived on trucks and forklifts, around the building.
In midtown Manhattan, a crane atop a luxury block of flats under construction broke and was dangling above the street. The New York fire department was working on stabilising the equipment on 57th between sixth and seventh avenue. Offices and hotels in the area were being evacuated.
As the storm surge was expected to reach its peak in the evening, parts of Gowanus and Red Hook in Brooklyn were inundated as the Gowanus Canal burst its banks, rising several feet above its levels of earlier in the day.
Brian Wolff, senior vice-president of the Edison Electric Institute, an association of public utilities, urged customers to prepare for the possibility of extended outages from the storm, which he said was “expected to devastate the electric system for days”.
A federal state of emergency was declared in New York, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island, allowing access to emergency relief funds.
The Associated Press reported that the Coast Guard had rescued 14 people and were searching for two more from a crew forced to abandon the HMS Bounty, a historic replica ship used in the film Mutiny on the Bounty, off the North Carolina coast.
The White House cancelled events in Florida and Wisconsin and the president returned to Washington to monitor the progress of the storm.
Mr Obama said he was not concerned about the impact of the storm on election day. Republican challenger Mitt Romney also cancelled events.
Several companies said they would delay scheduled events because of the storm. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer, energy groups Entergy and NRG Energy, financial information company Thomson Reuters, satellite radio provider Sirius XM, Time Warner Cable and publisher McGraw-Hill all postponed their quarterly earnings announcements Tuesday and Wednesday. Google postponed a planned launch of a new smartphone.
The superstorm was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone just before making landfall around 8pm near Atlantic City, New Jersey, with sustained winds of 80mph.
Late on Monday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the worst of the rain and wind had passed the city. But he warned that flooding could still be a major problem.
Consolidated Edison, the power utility, reported 250,000 outages in Manhattan alone. At least 3m people along the storm path lost power, according to Reuters. Schools, financial markets and most businesses were set to remain closed on Tuesday as public transit, trains and flights were halted. US media reported that at least 11 people have been reported dead, mostly due to trees falling on houses.
The US presidential campaign also paused to allow President Barack Obama to address the nation on the storm. Before the storm came ashore, Mr Obama warned the public that it could take a long time to clean up and several days for emergency services to restore power.
“This is going to be a slow-moving process through a wide swath of the country,” he said.
In New York City, Manhattan neighbourhoods were all experiencing heavy floods. Mr Bloomberg warned that all cars, including taxis, should stay off the road to allow emergency vehicles to get to those who needed help. By 8pm the Battery Tunnel, which connects Manhattan to Brooklyn, was nearly flooded.
Water was also pouring into some subway stations, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said. The headquarters of the New York Fire Department was evacuated as flooding threatened the building.
Nearly 14,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday and Monday and public transport systems were shut down all over the east coast. All New York area airports were closed due to flooding. Airports as far away as Cleveland, Ohio were also closing.
In Atlantic City and the barrier islands of New Jersey, residents who did not leave were told by governor Chris Christie that they could not be rescued until Tuesday morning at the earliest.
“Do not underestimate this storm,” said Andrew Cuomo, governor of neighbouring New York state. “These forecasts for the surge are really extraordinary. They are talking about surges that we have not seen before.”
As the storm’s high winds battered the coast all day, power companies warned that millions of homes could lose electricity for days.
View from New York City
Around the perimeter of the city, parks and roadways were already filling with flood waters.Local media showed the Hudson River lapping over promenades in lower Manhattan and flooded streets in low-lying areas of Brooklyn and Queens.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said flooding on the partially closed FDR Drive on Manhattan’s east side was already as bad as during tropical storm Irene in August 2011.
In the Financial District, the New York Stock Exchange dismantled security posts around the building and piled sandbags in shuttered doorways. The scene was the same at the New York Mercantile Exchange, whose revolving doors were blocked shut against potential gusts and flood water.
One conspicuous hive of activity was Goldman Sachs, whose steel and glass headquarters is in Battery Park City, an area highly susceptible to flooding and which was under evacuation orders. Dozens of workers piled hundreds of sandbags, which had arrived on trucks and forklifts, around the building.
In midtown Manhattan, a crane atop a luxury block of flats under construction broke and was dangling above the street. The New York fire department was working on stabilising the equipment on 57th between sixth and seventh avenue. Offices and hotels in the area were being evacuated.
As the storm surge was expected to reach its peak in the evening, parts of Gowanus and Red Hook in Brooklyn were inundated as the Gowanus Canal burst its banks, rising several feet above its levels of earlier in the day.
A federal state of emergency was declared in New York, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island, allowing access to emergency relief funds.
The Associated Press reported that the Coast Guard had rescued 14 people and were searching for two more from a crew forced to abandon the HMS Bounty, a historic replica ship used in the film Mutiny on the Bounty, off the North Carolina coast.
The White House cancelled events in Florida and Wisconsin and the president returned to Washington to monitor the progress of the storm.
Mr Obama said he was not concerned about the impact of the storm on election day. Republican challenger Mitt Romney also cancelled events.
Several companies said they would delay scheduled events because of the storm. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer, energy groups Entergy and NRG Energy, financial information company Thomson Reuters, satellite radio provider Sirius XM, Time Warner Cable and publisher McGraw-Hill all postponed their quarterly earnings announcements Tuesday and Wednesday. Google postponed a planned launch of a new smartphone.
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