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Superstorm Sandy slams East Coast, leaving floods, millions without power
Robert Connolly, left, embraces his wife Laura as they survey the remains of the home owned by her parents that burned to the ground in the Breezy Point section of New York, Oct. 30, 2012. More than 50 homes were destroyed in the fire which swept through the oceanfront community during superstorm Sandy. At right is their son, Kyle. / Getty
Last Updated at 5:18 p.m. ET
NEW YORK As superstorm Sandy marched slowly inland, millions along the East Coast awoke Tuesday without power or mass transit, with huge swaths of the nation's largest city unusually vacant and dark.
New York City was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart in Lower Manhattan shuttered for a second day and seawater cascading into the still-gaping construction pit at the World Trade Center.
Sandy damage leaves NYC paralyzed
"This will be one for the record books," said John Miksad, senior vice president for electric operations at Consolidated Edison, which had more than 684,000 customers without power in and around New York City on Tuesday morning.
The storm that made landfall in New Jersey on Monday evening with 80 mph sustained winds killed at least 39 people in nine states, cut power to more than 8.2 million homes and businesses from the Carolinas to Maine, caused scares at two nuclear power plants, and stopped the presidential campaign cold. More than 18,000 flights domestic and international were cancelled.
Sandy will end up causing about $20 billion in property damage and $10 billion to $30 billion more in lost business, making it one of the costliest natural disasters on record in the U.S., according to IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm.
Sandy's Aftermath: Severe damage along Jersey Shore
The full extent of the damage in New Jersey, where the massive storm made landfall Monday evening, was unclear. Police and fire officials - some with their own departments flooded - fanned out to rescue hundreds.
"We are in the midst of urban search and rescue. Our teams are moving as fast as they can," Gov. Chris Christie said. "The devastation on the Jersey Shore is some of the worst we've ever seen. The cost of the storm is incalculable at this point."
Remnants of the former Category 1 hurricane were forecast to head across Pennsylvania before taking another sharp turn into western New York by Wednesday morning. Although weakening as it goes, the massive storm -- which caused wind warnings from Florida to Canada -- will continue to bring heavy rain and local flooding, said Daniel Brown, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Head of FEMA on Sandy response and relief
As Hurricane Sandy closed in on the Northeast, it converged with a cold-weather system that turned it into a monstrous hybrid of rain and high wind -- and even snow in West Virginia and other mountainous areas inland.
President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in New York and Long Island, making federal funding available to residents of the area. He suspended campaigning for a third day Wednesday, and planned to join Christie in viewing the damage in New Jersey.
Obama speaks at Red Cross on Sandy relief effort
Mr. Obama, speaking during a stop Tuesday at Red Cross headquarters, warned the public that the massive storm that struck the East Coast "is not yet over." He said there were still risks of flooding and downed power lines. He called the storm "heartbreaking for the nation."
The president offered his thoughts and prayers to those affected and told them "America is with you." He said he also told government officials coordinating the response that there was "no excuse for inaction."
And he said he told governors in affected areas that if they get no for an answer, "they can call me personally at the White House."
Republican challenger Mitt Romney resumed his campaign, but with plans to turn a political rally in Ohio into a "storm relief event."
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Historic flooding in New York City
Sitting on the dangerous northeast wall of the storm, the New York metropolitan area got the worst of it.
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly on Sandy aftermath in NYC
An unprecedented 13-foot storm surge of seawater -- three feet above the previous record -- gushed into the harbor, flooding city streets and subway stations. The Brooklyn-Battery and Queens Midtown Tunnels were flooded.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota, said the damage to the subway system's was the worst in its 108-year history.
The system remained shut down Tuesday as transit officials begin the process of pumping corrosive salt water out of tunnels in lower Manhattan and parts of Queens that were inundated. The pumping, MTA officials told CBS Station WCBS, could take up to four days.
Fire engulfs more than 50 homes as flooding slows crews
An explosion at a Con Edison substation Monday night knocked out power to about 310,000 customers in lower Manhattan, creating an eerie darkness in the city as floodwaters churned in city streets. A hospital was forced to evacuate patients when a back-up generator failed.
In Queens, nearly 200 firefighters tried to contain an enormous blaze that consumed more than 80 homes in the Breezy Point neighborhood. They had to use a boat to make rescues and climbed an awning to reach about 25 trapped people, fire officials said.
Hurricane-force winds partially collapsed a crane hoisted 74 stories above Midtown, which remained perilously swaying on Tuesday morning. Plans were made to stabilize the structure once the winds died down.
Trading at the New York Stock Exchange was canceled again Tuesday -- the first time the exchange suspended operations for two consecutive days due to weather since an 1888 blizzard struck the city - but the NYSE will reopen on Wednesday.
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2.5M without power in New Jersey
Hours after landfall, the storm's effects were still being felt acutely in New Jersey, where downed trees and flooding knocked out power to more than 2.5 million utility customers.
New Jersey gets hit hard by Sandy
Just before Sandy made landfall at 8 p.m. near Atlantic City, N.J., forecasters stripped the storm of hurricane status -- but the distinction was purely technical, based on its shape and internal temperature. It still packed hurricane-force winds, and forecasters were careful to say it was still dangerous to the tens of millions in its path.
While the hurricane's 90 mph winds registered as only a Category 1 on a scale of five, it packed "astoundingly low" barometric pressure, giving it terrific energy to push water inland, said Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at MIT.
The storm caused massive flooding along New Jersey's shoreline, cutting off Atlantic City and other barrier island communities and washing away part of the resort town's historic boardwalk. Many residents who stayed put rather than evacuating were stranded.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie -- whose own family had to move to the executive mansion after his home in Mendham, far from the storm's center, lost power -- criticized the mayor of Atlantic City for opening shelters there instead of forcing people out.
In North Jersey, hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes after the entire town of Moonachie, located about 10 miles northwest of Manhattan, was flooded. Local authorities initially reported a levee had broken, but Gov. Chris Christie said a berm overflowed.
Police Sgt. Tom Schmidt said within 45 minutes streets were underwater and impassable. Floodwaters also knocked out the police and fire departments, forcing them to relocate command centers to a neighboring community.
Jersey City was closed to cars because traffic lights were out, and Hoboken, just over the Hudson River from Manhattan, dealt with major flooding.
By Tuesday morning the entire length of the Garden State Parkway has reopened - though Gov. Christie tweeted that motorists shouldn't drive unless absolutely necessary because 200 other state roads remain closed.
Deadly Hazards as Sandy Moves Inland
Sandy brings more snow to Appalachian Mountains
As it converged with other storm systems and made landfall Monday, Sandy - which killed 69 people in the Caribbean before making its way up the Eastern Seaboard - has been blamed for at least 39 deaths, including 17 in New York, five each in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, three each in Connecticut and Maryland, two each in Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina, and one each New Hampshire and West Virginia. Three of the victims were children, one just 8 years old.
The massive weather system reached well into the Midwest: Chicago officials warned residents to stay away from the Lake Michigan shore as the city prepares for winds of up to 60 mph and waves exceeding 24 feet well into Wednesday.
In Baltimore, fire officials said four unoccupied rowhouses collapsed in the storm, sending debris into the street but causing no injuries. Meanwhile, a blizzard in far western Maryland caused a pileup of tractor-trailers that blocked the westbound lanes of Interstate 68 on slippery Big Savage Mountain near the town of Finzel.
Sandy: 100,000 without power in Rhode Island
Hundreds of miles from the storm's center, gusts topping 60 mph prompted officials to close the port of Portland, Maine, and scaring away several cruise ships.
A state of emergency in New Hampshire prompted Vice President Joe Biden to cancel a rally in Keene and Republican nominee Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, to call off her bus tour through the Granite State.
About 360,000 people in 30 Connecticut towns were urged to leave their homes under mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders. Christi McEldowney was among those who fled to a Fairfield shelter. She and other families brought tents for their children to play in.
"There's something about this storm," she said. "I feel it deep inside."
An ambulance is stuck in snow off Highway 33 West, near Belington, W.Va. on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. Superstorm Sandy buried parts of West Virginia under more than a foot of snow on Tuesday. At least one death was reported.
/ APMore Fallout From the Storm
Superstorm Sandy causes travel nightmares
According to the flight-tracking service FlightAware, Superstorm Sandy grounded more than 15,000 flights across the Northeast and the globe on Monday and Tuesday.
By early Tuesday morning, more than 500 flights scheduled for Wednesday also were canceled.
It could be days before some passengers can get where they're going.
Amtrak says most train service in the Northeast remains suspended and a decision will be made later in the day on restoring limited service north and south of New York on Wednesday.
- Hurricane Sandy a nightmare for travelers
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Off North Carolina, not far from an area known as "the Graveyard of the Atlantic," a replica of the 18th-century sailing ship HMS Bounty that was built for the 1962 Marlon Brando movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" sank when her diesel engine and bilge pumps failed. Coast Guard helicopters plucked 14 crew members from rubber lifeboats bobbing in 18-foot seas.
A 15th crew member who was found unresponsive several hours after the others was later pronounced dead. The Bounty's captain was still missing.
One of the units at Indian Point, a nuclear power plant about 45 miles north of New York City, was shut down around 10:45 p.m. Monday because of external electrical grid issues, said Entergy Corp., which operates the plant. The company said there was no risk to employees or the public.
Officials declared an "unusual event" at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township, N.J., the nation's oldest, when waters searched to 6 feet above sea level during the evening. Within two hours, the situation at the reactor -- which was offline for regular maintenance -- was upgraded to an alert, the second-lowest in a four-tiered warning system. Oyster Creek provides 9 percent of the state's electricity.
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http://www.mnn.com/money/sustainable-business-practices/blogs/hurricane-sandy-how-you-can-help
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/30/us/iyw-how-to-help-after-sandy/index.html
http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/30/14810924-sandys-aftermath-how-you-can-help?lite
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/26/hurricane-sandy-how-to-help_n_2022488.html
If you are a church goer and volunteers there serve coffee (or whatever) after services see if they will allow donations to be dedicated to helping Sandy's victims recover.
If you have children in school, see if there are efforts in the classroom to put together drives to collect money for donations.
However hokey it may sound, sending good thoughts and/or prayers to those living on the east coast will help. At least it will do no harm and beats the heck out of using this forum to score political points or arguing whether or not this mess is caused by global warming.
For the curious, I just dropped 50 George Washingtons on the American Red Cross. I was able to specify where the funds were to go, so I didn't have to worry (too much) about how much - if any of it - the intended recipients actually get to see.
Not sure how many followed the tracking of the storm as well as the MB levels, comparing them to the 1997 simulation chart, but something strange happened near the end of it's course.
Within minutes of it hitting 940mb's (or shortly thereof), the trajectory and speed quickly changed. Immediately turning abruptly west as well as doubling its traveling speed (from 14mph to 24-28mph).
This change made landfall quicker and lower than the original targeted landfall point. In the simulation they used a Minimum MB level of 935mb, making me believe that that was lowest possible level to be maintained to achieve their desired outcome(or even controlability). Every test or implimentation has its own Go-NoGo ranges. For simulation it was 935mb. My guess is that for live testing was raised to 940mb to allow for unforseeable results or consequences etc.
I think there would have been more damage and the actual power outages etc. that they were predicting, had the storm stayed on its targeted path. Someone/something interviened. Whether the perpertators themselves or someone discovered the plan.
Murpy's Law ~ All actions have an equal and opposite reaction. i.e. like something attracting an object suddenly gets thrown in reverse and repels it, its speed would increase and trajectory would alter. (depending on already set rotational speeds when initiated).
Fruit For Thought!!!
Source(s):
http://www.weca.org/SET/report/node6.html
http://www.brotherjohnf.com/forum/Thread-Hurricane-Sandy-FRANKENSTORM-Man-made-using-HAARP-Chemtrails-predicted-in-1997
Surely you can do better than that. Those references? about the most unbelievable twaddle I have ever read. At least provide some idea of who these anonymous plural people are who you think are mucking with our weather - from a real source, please.
The thing is how do you explain to your children that you had a chance to try to make things better, but you did nothing.
Romney only called Republican Governors in the states that are in Hurricane Sandy's path:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/29/romney-botched-hurricane-sandy/
I don't believe this is a good time to be playing politics. Neather nominee should be on the campaign trail while this is going on. Instead they should do all that they can to assist these poor people. If he truly wanted to help wouldn't he at least called all Governors in the storm's path like Obama did? Pretty shameless, almost as bad as his relief photo op. Even the Red Cross stated that he's impeding and harming real efforts to help these people.
There are at least 60 millions WE THE PEOPLE thinking 'why me' and the only answer is Global Warming. We finally got the October Political Surprise.