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New York: At least thirteen people have been
killed as super-storm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline
and hurled a record-breaking 13-foot (4-meter) surge of seawater
at New York City in the early hours of Tuesday, roaring ashore and
putting the presidential campaign on hold a week before Election
Day.
Storm damage was projected at $10 billion to $20 billion, meaning
it could prove to be one of the costliest natural disasters in
U.S. history.
Sandy knocked out power to at least 5.7 million people across the
U.S. East, and New York’s main utility said large sections of
Manhattan had been plunged into darkness by the storm, with
250,000 customers without power as water pressed into the island
from three sides, flooding rail yards, subway tracks, tunnels and
roads.
Just before its center reached land, the storm was stripped of
hurricane status, but the distinction was purely technical, based
on its shape and internal temperature. It still packed
hurricane-force wind, and forecasters were careful to say it
remained every bit as dangerous to the 50 million people in its
path.
The full extent of the storm’s damage across the region was
unclear, and unlikely to become known until day break. Heavy rain
and further flooding remain major threats over the next couple of
days as the storm makes its way into Pennsylvania and up into New
York State. Near midnight, the center of the storm was just
outside Philadelphia, and its winds were down to 75 mph (120 kph),
just barely hurricane strength.
The National Hurricane Center announced that Sandy had come ashore
near Atlantic City. It smacked the boarded-up big cities of the
Northeast corridor, from Washington and Baltimore to Philadelphia,
New York and Boston, with stinging rain and gusts of more than 85
mph (135 kph). The sea surged a record of nearly 13 feet (4
meters) at the foot of Manhattan, flooding the financial district
and subway tunnels.
The 13 deaths were reported in New Jersey, New York, West
Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Some of the victims were
killed by falling trees. Police in Toronto said a woman was killed
by a falling sign as high winds closed in on Canada’s largest
city.
As it made its way toward land, it converged with a cold-weather
system that turned into a fearsome super-storm, a monstrous hybrid
consisting not only of rain and high wind but of snow. Forecasters
warned of 20-foot (6-meter) waves bashing into the Chicago
lakefront and up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) of snow in West Virginia.
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney suspended their campaigning
with just over a week to go before Election Day.
At the White House, Obama made a direct appeal to those in harm’s
way: “Please listen to what your state and local officials are
saying. When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate.
Don’t delay, don’t pause, don’t question the instructions that are
being given, because this is a powerful storm.”
The storm washed away a section of the Atlantic City Boardwalk in
New Jersey. Water was splashing over the seawalls at the southern
tip of Manhattan.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said early Tuesday that the worst
of the rain had passed for the city, and that the high tide that
sent water sloshing into Manhattan from three sides was receding.
Still, authorities also feared the surge of seawater would damage
the underground electrical and communications lines in lower
Manhattan that are vital to the nation's financial center.
Water began pooling in rail yards and on highways near the Hudson
River waterfront on Manhattan’s far west side. On coastal Long
Island, floodwaters swamped cars, downed trees and put
neighborhoods under water as beachfronts and fishing villages bore
the brunt of the storm. A police car was lost rescuing 14 people
from the popular resort Fire Island.
In downtown Manhattan, rescue workers floated bright orange rafts
on flooded streets, while police officers with loudspeakers told
people to go home.
“Now it’s really turning into something,” said Brian Damianakes,
taking shelter in a bank vestibule and watching a trash can blow
down the street in Battery Park.
A construction crane atop a luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan
collapsed in high winds and dangled precariously. Residents in
surrounding buildings were ordered to move to lower floors and the
streets below were cleared, but there were no immediate reports of
injuries.
The facade of a four-story Manhattan building in the Chelsea
neighborhood crumbled and collapsed suddenly, leaving the lights,
couches, cabinets and desks inside visible from the street. No one
was hurt, although some of the falling debris hit a car.
The major American stock exchanges closed for the day, the first
unplanned shutdown since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Wall Street
expected to remain closed on Tuesday. The United Nations canceled
all meetings at its New York headquarters.
Not only was the New York subway shut down, but the Holland Tunnel
connecting New York to New Jersey was closed, as was a tunnel
between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge, the George
Washington Bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and several other
spans were closed because of high winds.
Authorities had warned that New York City and Long Island could
get the worst of the storm surge: an 11-foot (3-meter) onslaught
of seawater that could swamp lower Manhattan, flood the subways
and damage the underground network of electrical and
communications lines that are vital to the nation’s financial
capital.
“Leave immediately. Conditions are deteriorating very rapidly, and
the window for you getting out safely is closing,” New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg told those in low-lying areas earlier in the
day.
New York University hospital lost backup power and was being
evacuated, Bloomberg said. The hospital is located near the East
River in an area of lower Manhattan where flooding was reported.
Defiant New Yorkers jogged, pushed strollers and took snapshots of
churning New York Harbor during the day Monday, trying to salvage
normal routines.
Without most stores and museums open, tourists were left to snap
photos of the World Trade Center site, Wall Street and Times
Square in largely deserted streets.
Belgian tourist Gerd Van don Mooter-Dedecker, 56, wandered in to
Trinity Church after learning that a planned shopping spree with
her husband Monday wouldn't happen. ‘We brought empty suitcases so
we could fill them up,” she said.
As rain from the leading edges began to fall over the Northeast on
Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland to
Connecticut were ordered to leave low-lying coastal areas,
including 375,000 in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York
City, 50,000 in Delaware and 30,000 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Obama declared emergencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, authorizing federal
relief work to begin well ahead of time. He promised the
government would “respond big and respond fast” after the storm
hits.
Off North Carolina, a replica of the 18th-century sailing ship HMS
Bounty that was built for the 1962 Marlon Brando movie “Mutiny on
the Bounty” went down in the storm, and 14 crew members were
rescued by helicopter from rubber lifeboats bobbing in 18-foot
(5.5-meter) seas. Another crew member was found hours later and
was hospitalized in critical condition. The captain was still
missing.
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