'Post-tropical' Sandy hits New Jersey coast
October 30, 2012 -- Updated 0027 GMT (0827 HKT)
A woman walks down the promenade along the East River in New York City on Monday, October 29. View photos of New York bracing for impact.
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Sandy's destructive path
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Sandy makes landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey
- NEW: "The whole north side of my town is totally under water," a Jersey Shore police chief says
- The storm has damaged part of Atlantic City's fabled boardwalk
- The storm is likely to spawn flooding, snowstorms and massive power outages
October 30, 2012 -- Updated 0027 GMT (0827 HKT)
Waves slam into the sea wall in Scituate, Massachusetts, on October 29.
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Sandy's destructive path
October 30, 2012 -- Updated 0027 GMT (0827 HKT)
Floodwaters cover the streets of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on October 29.
HIDE CAPTION
Sandy's destructive path
October 30, 2012 -- Updated 0027 GMT (0827 HKT)
Waves crash against
a previously damaged pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as Hurricane
Sandy approaches landfall on Monday, October 29.
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Sandy's destructive path
Sandy's 85-mph winds
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. It spawned high winds and torrential rains from North
Carolina to Maine and knocked out power to more than 2.2 million
customers across across 11 states and the District of Columbia.
And it was blamed for the
first confirmed U.S. death when a man was killed by a falling tree in
the New York borough of Queens, said Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the
city's Fire Department.
The storm hit land near
Atlantic City about 8 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center reported.
Hurricane-force winds stretched from Cape Cod to the Virginia coast as
it swept ashore, with its storm surge setting new high-water records for
lower Manhattan and swamping beachfronts on both sides of Long Island
Sound.
"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.
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.
View Hurricane Sandy from space
Atlantic City braces for Hurricane Sandy
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."
Sandy's expected storm
surge could raise water levels to 11 feet above normal high tide,
already the highest of the month because of a full moon. And forecasters
said Sandy was likely to collide with a cold front and spawn a
superstorm that could generate flash floods and snowstorms.
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.
"It could be bad," said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Rattior, "or it could be devastation."
Sandy formed last week
and swept across the Caribbean, where it had already claimed at least 67
lives, 51 of them in Haiti. Another two people were missing at sea off
North Carolina after the crew of the HMS Bounty, a replica of the
historic sailing ship, foundered in the storm, the U.S. Coast Guard
said.
In New York, lower
Manhattan's Battery Park recorded a 12.75-foot tide, breaking a record
set in 1960 with Hurricane Donna. The city 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.
On Fire Island, off Long
Island, the water was already rising 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."
And New York's
skyscrapers were being battered with higher winds the taller they are:
An 80-mph gust at ground level becomes a nearly 100-mph gust at 30
stories up. Far above West 57th Street, a crane snapped and dangled from
the side of a luxury high-rise under construction; police closed part
of the street and evacuated several nearby buildings, including the
Parker Meridien hotel.
The New York Stock
Exchange was ordered closed Monday and Tuesday -- the first such closure
for weather since 1985, when Hurricane Gloria struck.
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.
Meteorological data
supported her view: Hours before landfall, storm surge for Sandy was
higher than it had been for Irene after landfall.
"Everything that we've
been watching on the news looks like this one will really get us," she
said. "We're definitely worried about it."
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.
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.'"
CNN's Greg Botelho, Michael Holmes, Jareen
Iman, Alison Kosik, Sarah Dillingham, Brandon Miller, George Howell,
Athena Jones, Shawn Nottingham and Devon Sayers contributed to this
report.
COPY http://edition.cnn.com
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