(CNN)
— Though no longer a hurricane, “post-tropical” storm Sandy still
packed a hurricane-sized punch as it closed on the New Jersey coast with
85 mph winds Monday evening, forecasters said.
(James Keivom/New York Daily News)
The storm drove torrents of water up the streets of Atlantic City,
stretching for blocks inland and ripping up part of the vacation spot’s
fabled boardwalk. It spawned high winds and torrential rains from North
Carolina to Maine, and more than 2.2 million people were out of power
across 11 states and the District of Columbia.
“In some places, we have two and a half to three feet of water on the
ground, and this is the low tide,” Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford
told CNN.
The storm had already knocked down power lines and tree limbs while
still 50 miles offshore, and he urged anyone staying in the resort to
“hunker down and try to wait this thing out.”
“When Mother Nature sends her wrath your way, we’re at her mercy, and
so all we can do is stay prayerful and do the best that we can,”
Langford said.
Sandy’s eye was expected to come ashore along or near the southern
New Jersey shore early Monday evening. Sandy had already “wiped out” a
northern section of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, but most of the East
Coast landmark was intact, Langford said.
At 7 p.m. ET, Sandy was centered about 20 miles south of Atlantic
City and was expected to hit land within an hour, the National Hurricane
Center reported. As it lost tropical characteristics, forecasters
redesignated it a “post-tropical storm” and not a hurricane.
Still, its expected storm surge could raise water levels to 11 feet
above normal high tide, already the highest of the month because of a
full moon.
And forecasters said Sandy was likely to collide with a cold front
and spawn a superstorm that could generate flash floods and snowstorms.
Hurricane-force winds stretched from Virginia to Cape Cod, and
tropical-storm force winds ranged for nearly 500 miles on either side of
the storm.
Sandy had already knocked out power to about 1.5 million electric
customers in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Mass transit shut
down across the densely populated region, landmarks stood empty and
schools and government offices were closed. The National Grid, which
provides power to millions of customers, said 60 million people could be
affected before it’s over.
“It could be bad,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Rattior, “or it could be devastation.”
Sandy formed last week and swept across the Caribbean, where it had
already claimed at least 67 lives, 51 of them in Haiti. Another two
people were missing at sea off North Carolina after the crew of the HMS
Bounty, a replica of the historic sailing ship, foundered in the storm,
the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Mass transit grinds to a halt
In New York, forecasters projected a storm surge of 10 to 12 feet for
lower Manhattan’s Battery Park, which could break a record set in 1960
with Hurricane Donna. Water depths could reach 6 to 11 feet along Long
Island Sound and New York Harbor.
The city halted service on its bus and train lines, closing schools
and ordering about 400,000 people out of their homes in low-lying areas
of Manhattan and elsewhere.
On Fire Island, off Long Island, the water was already rising above
promenades and docks on Monday afternoon, homeowner Karen Boss said.
Boss stayed on the island with her husband despite a mandatory
evacuation order. She said they own several properties and a business
there and had weathered previous storms.
“I’m concerned that it might come into the first floor,” she said.
“If that’s the case, I’ll just move into another house that’s higher
up.”
Five things to know about Hurricane Sandy
And New York’s skyscrapers will be battered with higher winds the
taller they are: An 80-mph gust at ground level becomes a nearly 100-mph
gust at 30 stories up. Far above West 57th Street, a crane snapped and
dangled from the side of a luxury high-rise under construction; police
closed part of the street and evacuated several nearby buildings,
including the Parker Meridien hotel.
The New York Stock Exchange was ordered closed Monday and Tuesday —
the first such closure for weather since 1985, when Hurricane Gloria
struck.
Based on pressure readings, it’s likely to be the strongest storm to
make landfall north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, CNN senior
meteorologist Dave Hennen said.
A state-by-state breakdown of hurricane preparation efforts, impacts
The benchmark storm, the 1938 “Long Island Express” Hurricane,
contained a low pressure reading of 946 millibars. Sandy had a minimum
pressure of 943 millibars. Generally speaking, the lower the pressure,
the stronger the storm.
In Sea Bright, New Jersey, Yvette Cafaro scrawled a plea on the
plywood that covered her burger restaurant: “Be kind to us Sandy.” The
seaside area largely dodged last year’s Hurricane Irene, but Cafaro was
not optimistic that Sea Bright would be spared Sandy.
Meteorological data supported her view: Hours before landfall, storm
surge for Sandy was higher than it had been for Irene after landfall.
“Everything that we’ve been watching on the news looks like this one
will really get us,” she said. “We’re definitely worried about it.”
What to expect when Hurricane Sandy hits
Its arrival, eight days before the U.S. presidential election, forced
President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, to
alter or cancel several campaign stops. Obama flew back to Washington
from Florida, telling reporters at the White House that assets were in
place for an effective response to the storm.
“The most important message 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.”
And in Ohio, Romney asked supporters to drop off items and cash at his “victory centers” to be donated to victims of the storm.
“There are families in harm’s way that will be hurt — either in their
possessions or perhaps in something more severe,” Romney said.
Keep a hurricane preparation checklist
By Monday afternoon, 23 states were under a warning or advisory for
wind related to Sandy. Thousands of flights had been canceled, and
hundreds of roads and highways were expected to flood. And according to a
government model, Sandy’s wind damage alone could cause more than $7
billion in economic loss.
Sandy was expected to weaken once it moves inland, but the center was
expected to move slowly northward, meaning gusty winds and heavy rain
would continue through Wednesday.
As Sandy descends, tips from Katrina survivors
On the western side of the storm, the mountains of West Virginia
expected up to three feet of snow and the mountains of southwestern
Virginia to the Kentucky state line could see up to two feet. Twelve to
18 inches of snow were expected in the mountains near the North
Carolina-Tennessee border.
“This is not a typical storm,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett. “Essentially, this is a hurricane wrapped in a ‘nor’easter.’”
Hurricane Sandy grounds thousands of flights worldwide
CNN’s Greg Botelho, Michael Holmes, Jareen Iman, Alison Kosik, Sarah
Dillingham, Brandon Miller, George Howell, Athena Jones, Shawn
Nottingham and Devon Sayers contributed to this report.
