Superstorm Sandy wreaks havoc on US

30 Oct 2012, 9:38 pm   -   Source: AFP
Share This
0 
+ Comment
2

Super-storm Sandy has engulfed the eastern United States, flooding much of New York City, battering several states with heavy winds and torrential rain, and reportedly leaving up to 16 people dead.

RELATED

Super-storm Sandy has engulfed the eastern United States, flooding much of New York City, battering several states with heavy winds and torrential rain, and reportedly leaving up to 16 people dead.

The massive storm stretched over hundreds of miles and paralysed several major cities early on Tuesday as it brought coastal flooding and hurricane-force winds to the densely-populated east coast and blizzards to the mountainous interior.

Seawater coursed between the iconic skyscrapers of New York's financial district in lower Manhattan, flooding subways and road tunnels and shorting out the power grid, plunging more than six million households into darkness.

p>

Further south, the sea surged over vast swaths of the eastern seaboard, turning coastal cities into ghost towns as the high winds grounded aeroplanes and shut down rail links, public transport and government offices.

The catastrophe completely overshadowed the US election race, forcing a halt to campaigning a week before Americans are due to go to the polls to choose between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney.

Hurricane Sandy had killed 67 people as it tore through the Caribbean, and reports of more deaths began to arrive after it made landfall at 8.00pm on Monday (1100 AEDT Tuesday) in New Jersey and began to wreak havoc in the United States.

Local officials in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and North Carolina reported 16 dead in storm related incidents, and Toronto police said a Canadian woman was killed by flying debris.

Authorities warned the threat to life and property was "unprecedented" and ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in areas from New England to North Carolina to evacuate their homes and seek shelter.

The National Hurricane Centre said wind speeds inside Sandy dropped as the storm became a post-tropical cyclone, but remained hurricane-force at 120km/h after it made landfall near casino resort Atlantic City.

Falling trees tore down power cables, plunging what weather experts said were millions of homes into darkness, while storm warnings cut rail links and marooned tens of thousands of travellers at airports across the region. A nuclear power plant in New Jersey declared an alert as waters rose.

The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, just north of Atlantic City, was already on a scheduled outage as Sandy made landfall, and the industry regulator said there was no immediate danger.

The hurricane sent a record storm surge of 4.15 metres into lower Manhattan, flooding seven major subway tunnels used by hundreds of thousands of daily commuters and swamping cars in the financial district.

"The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night," city transport director Joseph Lhota said early on Tuesday. Hours earlier, a power substation exploded in a burst of light captured by amateur photographers as a massive blackout left much of Manhattan, and some 500,000 homes across New York City, in darkness.

The floodwaters had begun to recede early on Tuesday, but the Con Edison power company said it could take a week to completely restore power. Disaster estimating firm Eqecat forecast that Sandy would affect more than 60 million Americans, a fifth of the population, and cause up to $US20 billion ($A19.45 billion) in damage.

Refineries closed and major arteries such New York's Holland Tunnel were shut to traffic.

The operator of two major New Jersey nuclear plants said they might have to be closed, threatening half the state's power supply.

The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the futures markets in Chicago were closed for Monday and Tuesday, along with federal government offices and the entire Amtrak rail network on the eastern seaboard.

Obama urged Americans to heed local evacuation orders as he stepped off the campaign trail and spent the day in the White House helping to coordinate the response to the disaster.

"The election will take care of itself next week," Obama said.

"Right now, our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives ... and that we respond as quickly as possible to get the economy back on track."

Obama has signed emergency declarations to free up federal disaster funds for New York state, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia.

Storm Sandy , Hurricane Sandy

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

Super Storm OMG!!!

Brett - from Melbourne, 7 months ago

So it's a "Super Storm" when it hits the United States which claims 67 people and "Hurricane Sandy" when it hits Haiti and claims 52 deaths. Again the media portray the lives of the Western World as far more important than those from developing world. It doesn't matter what country it is, what nationality, or ethnicity, Hurricane Sandy has so far claimed 119 innocent people of the earth. It's an unquestionable result of global warming.

over population equals over pollution

ernie - from geelong, 7 months ago

Ah well S*** happens, we all know it can only get worse with global warming so this storm won't be as bad as future storms. Get used to it people or start to deal with over population which is the root cause whether you like it or not.

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.