Taxis drive down a New York street
where the power was out late Monday, October 29. The storm surge from
Sandy set records in lower Manhattan, where flooded substations caused a
widespread power outage. View photos of New York bracing for impact.
(CNN) -- Though no longer a hurricane, "post-tropical" superstorm Sandy packed a hurricane-sized punch as it slammed into the Jersey Shore on Monday, killing at least 11 people from West Virginia to North Carolina and Connecticut.
Sandy whipped torrents of
water over the streets of Atlantic City, stretching for blocks inland
and ripping up part of the vacation spot's fabled boardwalk. The storm
surge set records in Lower Manhattan, where flooded substations caused a
widespread power outage. It swamped beachfronts on both sides of Long
Island Sound and delivered hurricane-force winds from Virginia to Cape
Cod as it came ashore.
Sandy's wrath also prompted the evacuation of about 200 patients at NYU Langone Medical Center.
"We are having
intermittent telephone access issues, and for this reason the receiving
hospital will notify the families of their arrival," spokeswoman Lisa
Greiner said.
In addition, the basement
of New York's Bellevue Hospital Center flooded, and the hospital was
running off of emergency backup power. Ian Michaels of the Office of
Emergency Management said the main priority is to help secure additional
power and obtain additional fuel and pumps for the hospital.
The storm hit near
Atlantic City about 8 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center reported.
It packed 80-mph winds at landfall, down from the 90 mph clocked earlier
Monday.
Superstorm Sandy's wrath
"I've been down here for
about 16 years, and it's shocking what I'm looking at now. It's
unbelievable," said Montgomery Dahm, owner of the Tun Tavern in Atlantic
City, which stayed open as Sandy neared the Jersey Shore. "I mean,
there's cars that are just completely underwater in some of the places I
would never believe that there would be water."
Dahm's family cleared out
of Atlantic City before the storm hit, but he says he stayed put to
serve emergency personnel. At nightfall Monday, he said the water was
lapping at the steps of his restaurant, where a generator was keeping
the lights on.
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The storm had already
knocked down power lines and tree limbs while still 50 miles offshore
and washed out a section of the boardwalk on the north end of town,
Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford told CNN. He said there were still
"too many people" who didn't heed instructions to evacuate, and he urged
anyone still in town 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.
And in Seaside Heights,
about 30 miles north of Atlantic City, Police Chief Thomas Boyd told
CNN, "The whole north side of my town is totally under water."
In New York, lower
Manhattan's Battery Park recorded nearly 14-foot tide, smashing a record
set by 1960's Hurricane Donna by more than 3 feet. The city had already
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.
Flooding forced the
closure of all three of the major airports in the area, LaGuardia, John
F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty. Water seeped into subway stations in
Lower Manhattan and into the tunnel connecting Lower Manhattan and
Brooklyn, while high winds damaged a crane perched atop a Midtown
skyscraper under construction, forcing authorities to evacuate the
surrounding area.
New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg told reporters there was an "extraordinary" amount of water in
Lower Manhattan, as well as downed trees throughout the city and
widespread power outages.
"We knew that this was
going to be a very dangerous storm, and the storm has met our
expectations," he said. "The worst of the weather has come, and city
certainly is feeling the impacts."
The storm was blamed for
more than 2.8 million outages across the Northeast. About 350,000 of
them were in the New York city area, where utility provider Con Edison
reported it had also cut power to customers in parts of Brooklyn and
Lower Manhattan to protect underground equipment as the storm waters
rose.
But as water crept into
its substations, Con Ed said it had lost service to about 250,000
customers in Manhattan -- including most of the island south of 39th
Street.
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At least five people had
been killed in storm-related incidents in New York state, including
three killed by trees falling on homes in Queens and in the town of New
Salem, near Albany, city and state officials said. Falling trees were
also blamed for three deaths reported in New Jersey and one in
Connecticut, authorities there told CNN.
In West Virginia, a
woman was killed in a car accident after the storm dumped 5 inches of
snow on the town of Davis, said Amy Shuler Goodwin, a spokeswoman for
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's office.
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And before hitting land,
it overwhelmed the sailing ship HMS Bounty, a replica of the historic
British vessel, off North Carolina. Fourteen of the ship's crew of 16
were rescued, but the body of one deckhand was found Monday evening and
the ship's captain was still missing Monday night, the Coast Guard said.
Sandy had already claimed at least 67 lives in the Caribbean, including 51 in Haiti.
Sandy's storm surges
were boosted by a full moon, which already brings the highest tides of
the month. And forecasters said the storm was likely to collide with a
cold front and spawn a superstorm that could generate flash floods and
snowstorms.
"It could be bad," said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Rattior, "or it could be devastation."
Mass transit shut down
across the densely populated Northeast, 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.
On Fire Island, off Long
Island, the water rose 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."
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. 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.
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.
Tips from Katrina survivors
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.
On the western side of
the storm, the mountains of West Virginia expected up to 3 feet of snow
and the mountains of southwestern Virginia to the Kentucky state line
could see up to 2 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.'"
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