Burt Myrich boards up a home in
preparation for Hurricane Sandy on Saturday, October 27, in Cape May,
New Jersey. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has ordered mandatory
evacuations of the barrier islands by 4 p.m. Sunday, including the
Atlantic City casinos, as Hurricane Sandy threatens the East Coast.
(CNN) -- Got bottled water? Food? Sandbags? Batteries? Toilet paper?
Those are questions that
millions of people in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast are asking
themselves this weekend, as they prepare for Hurricane Sandy -- which
has already proven to be a deadly storm and is threatening heartache,
and headaches, as it creeps toward the region.
Local and state officials
have joined meteorologists in trumpeting the storm's potential breadth
and impact, especially if it collides with a cold front from the West to
create a "superstorm" that stalls over the Eastern Seaboard for days.
Computer models predict
portions of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia could see up to a foot of
rain, according to the CNN Weather Unit. And even though it's still
October, communities in and around the Appalachian Mountains could be
socked by heavy snow.
Anne Hargrove, for one,
has gotten the hint -- and, as evidenced by her fruitless trips Friday
night to Northern Virginia supermarkets, pharmacies and big-box stores
such as Walmart, so, too, have many of her neighbors. She found no C or D
batteries and no small water bottles, but did come away with other
essentials just in case the storm knocks out her electricity.
"Basically, I got (jugs
of) water, toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, paper cups,
flashlights," Hargrove said Saturday in Alexandria. "The reason I did it
last night was because I knew if I waited until today, I'd have to
drive like 50 miles to find the place that still had it."
The rush to stay ahead of
the storm is something that Richard Heilman noticed, too, as he stood
in front of empty shelves at his Ace Hardware store in the Virginia
city.
If the emphatic warnings
from officials weren't enough, fresh memories of recent long stretches
without power over the past year or so -- including a devastating and
deadly storm system this summer that left millions in the dark for about
a week -- have spurred many to get out and not be caught flat-footed.
"People are a little bit
more, hey, maybe I should go get my batteries now instead of waiting
until they're all gone," Heilman said.
For some, simply stocking up is not enough.
Residents of New
Jersey's barrier islands, from Sandy Hook south to Cape May, were
ordered to evacuate by Sunday afternoon, as were people at Atlantic City
casinos.
"I would much rather
people stay in their homes," said Gov. Chris Christie, who issued the
order Saturday. "But the fact of the matter is, if we're looking at
hurricane force winds on the barrier islands sustained for 24 hours or
more, it is simply unsafe for people to be there."
Carol Elliott said she
was concerned, but won't be leaving her North Wildwood home -- because
she doesn't have anywhere else to go.
Others, though, planned
to abide by the order -- and keep their fingers crossed that Sandy
doesn't prove to be as fierce as feared.
"I'm heeding the warning and we're going," Cheryl Nolan told CNN affiliate WKYW. "And I'm hoping that I have a house when I come back."
It won't be until late
Sunday, and in some cases Monday, when the Category 1 hurricane makes
its full impact known on the United States. But the storm, which
Saturday night boasted 75 mph sustained winds that extend out 105 miles
from its center, has already proved its might as it spun northward from
the Caribbean.
Officials blame Sandy
for at least 45 deaths. That figure includes 29 people in Haiti, with
four more reported missing, Civil Protection spokesman Joseph Edgard
Celestin said. Another 16 people were reported dead in Cuba, Jamaica,
Panama, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
While locales as far
south as Charleston, South Carolina, got drenched, strong winds and
pelting rains lashed North Carolina's Outer Banks late Saturday
afternoon. The National Weather Service estimates places such as Kill
Devil Hills will get between 4 to 7 inches of rain over several days,
though storm surges were a parallel and, in some places, more severe
concern.
Farther south in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, Jimmy Butts raised hurricane warning flags over his seaside bar Saturday.
"It's going to be a ...
strong mullet blow, what we call here in the fall," Butts told CNN
affiliate WSOC. "(There will) be a lot of rain and maybe 30, 40 mph
winds."
'Superstorm' meets barnstorm as weather and politics collide
As of 11 p.m., Sandy was
centered about 360 miles east-southeast of Charleston and 305 miles
south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, according to the National
Hurricane Center. Now heading northeast at a 14 mph rate, the storm is
expected eventually to boomerang toward the shore and begin seriously
impacting heavily populated areas Sunday.
Forecasters are still
trying to pinpoint where it will its biggest impact when it finally does
come entirely over land. Computer models show it striking somewhere
along a roughly 700-mile stretch -- from North Carolina to as far north
as Connecticut.
Its potential merger
with the cold front could "energize this system" and make it more
powerful, said Louis Uccellini, who is responsible for environmental
prediction at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Such a scenario is not
unlike the weather system that led to 1991's "Perfect Storm," when
moisture flung north by Hurricane Grace combined with a high pressure
system and a cold front to produce a tempest in the north Atlantic
during Halloween. But Grace never made landfall.
Anne Kennedy headed on
Saturday to RFK Stadium, like many other Washington, D.C., residents, to
fill up her car's trunk with sandbags that she'll pass onto her
daughter, who has two babies at home. Amid all the frenzy, Kennedy said
she's gotten the point.
"I just turned off the news," she said. "It's too much."
Some have resigned themselves to the fact that Mother Nature is in charge -- and that, whatever
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