Eastern Seaboard Braces for Hurricane’s Arrival
The East Coast from the Carolinas through New England was in shutdown mode Monday as Hurricane Sandy, a storm of unprecedented size and strength, approached from the Atlantic Ocean bringing high winds and heavy rain.
Transit systems in New York and Washington were shut down, as was the federal government in the capital. The New York Stock Exchange is also closed Monday, marking the first time since 1985 that the equities market has been closed due to weather, the New York Times reported.
Thousands of flights were cancelled at airports and Amtrak cancelled its Northeast rail service as the storm moved toward landfall overnight Monday, most likely near Atlantic City, N.J.
Officials urged people to stay off the roads, particularly in coastal areas where flooding was likely. Hundreds of thousands of coastal residents were ordered evacuated in several states and power outages affecting millions were likely, news reports said.
The Port of New York/New Jersey was closed to all vessel traffic Monday due to high seas, the Associated Press reported.
The coastal regions were not the only ones affected by Sandy, which forecasters said would mix with a cold-weather system coming from the Midwest. The combination was likely to bring blizzard conditions to West Virginia and cause high winds over much of the country east of the Mississippi River, as well as extensive flooding in many areas, reports said.
