Hurricane Sandy threatens eastern coast, thousands evacuated

Mangalore Today News/ ITV

New York, Oct 29 : Hurricane Sandy, a large, late-season tropical cyclone that has affected Jamaica, Cuba, The Bahamas, Haiti and Florida, is currently threatening the East Coast of the United States and Eastern Canada.

The eighteenth tropical cyclone, eighteenth named storm, and tenth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Sandy developed from an elongated tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22.

 

On October 24, Sandy was upgraded to a hurricane, shortly before making landfall in Jamaica. Upon moving further north, Sandy re-entered water and made its second landfall in Cuba during the early morning hours of October 25 as a Category 2 hurricane. 


During the late evening of October 25, Sandy weakened to Category 1 strength and headed north through the Bahamas in the early hours of October 26.

At least 67 people were killed across the Caribbean, Bahamas, and the United States. Sandy briefly weakened to a tropical storm in the early morning hours of October 27, then restrengthened to a Category 1 hurricane later that morning and remained that strength through the morning of October 28.


BA and Virgin Atlantic cancelled all flights from London to East Coast states tomorrow - affecting those on half-term holiday . Up to 2,500 holidaymakers could be left stranded in New York City as state comes to a standstill. .

Hurricane Sandy  is already causing widespread problems for travelers, with over 3,200 flight cancellations so far .

The NYSE will close its trading floor on Monday, the first weather-related closure in 27 years, as Hurricane Sandy barrels down on Manhattan. 

Tens of millions of East Coast residents scrambled on Sunday to prepare for Hurricane Sandy, which could make landfall as the largest storm to hit the United States, bringing battering winds, flooding and even heavy snow. 


The massive storm, which has already killed 66 people in the Caribbean, was headed toward a densely populated region that includes Washington, New York and Boston and its effects could be felt for hundreds of miles, officials warned. It could be the largest storm to hit the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

New York and other big cities closed their transit systems and schools and ordered residents of low-lying areas to evacuate before a storm surge that could reach as 11 feet (3.4 meters).

They warned that power outages could last for days. "We’re expecting the worst, hoping for the best. We’re getting everything off the basement floor.
We’ve got two sump pumps but during Hurricane Floyd, we were down there for 17 hours straight sweeping water into the sump pumps," said Maria Ogorek, a Maplewood, New Jersey, lawyer and mother of three.

The US government said it had granted administrative leave to non-emergency federal workers in the Washington DC area.

The New York Stock Exchange said it would close its trading floor on Monday for the first time since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.