Sandy leaves a trail of destruction
presidential race eight days before Election Day. U.S. President Barack Obama declared New York and New Jersey disaster regions eligible for federal relief.
The storm may cause as much as $20 billion in economic damage and losses, according to Eqecat, a riskmanagement company in Oakland.
Sandy weakened with its center drifting west through central Pennsylvania. Its core was about 120 miles eastsoutheast of Pittsburgh with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour, according to an 11 a.m. advisory from the U.S. Hydrometeorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md.
More than two feet of snow fell in western Maryland and nearly as much in West Virginia, according to the advisory.
“For the major cities of the east the worst of the weather is done,” said Tom Kines, a meteorologist at AccuWeather in State College, Pa. “Eventually, over the next 24 hours, the system will rain itself out.”
New York City may have some rain showers later today while overall the weather gradually improves, Kines said. The weakened storm will move into southern Canada later this week.
The storm left 8.11 million electricity customers without power in 17 states and the District of Columbia, from South Carolina to Maine and as far west as Michigan and Indiana, according to the Department of Energy, including 62 percent without power in New Jersey, and 31 percent in Connecticut.
Power was lost in Manhattan “river to river,” south of 35th Street, Bloomberg said Monday night. Some of the blackout was deliberate, as Consolidated Edison shut off electricity to protect its underground equipment from potential damage, said Chris Olert, a spokesman for the company.
The mayor Tuesday morning issued a message urging city employees to report to work and help with recovery operations if they could do so safely.
A flood gauge at Battery Park, at the southernmost end of Manhattan, registered at 13.88 feet at 9:24 p.m. Monday, beating the modern record of 10.02 feet in September 1960 during Hurricane Donna, the National Weather Service said.
New York University’s Langone Medical Center evacuated 215 patients, including infants from its neo-natal intensive care unit, and transported them to other hospitals when it lost power and backup systems failed.
A fire in Breezy Point in the New York City borough of Queens had about 198 firefighters working to contain a blaze that had destroyed at least 50 homes and left two people with minor injuries, a New York Fire Department official said Tuesday.
Sandy forced three nuclear power plants to shut and put another on alert as federal regulators dispatched inspectors to monitor 11 facilities in the path of the storm.
The United States’ oldest nuclear power plant, Exelon’s Oyster Creek facility in New Jersey, declared an alert last night due to elevated levels of water in its water-intake structure, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a statement.
Insured losses may exceed $6 billion, led by costs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and New York, according to estimates from Kinetic Analysis compiled by Bloomberg. As many as 10 million people may lose power, according to Seth Guikema, a Johns Hopkins University engineer.
Airlines grounded 6,047 of U.S. flights, or 20 percent of those scheduled for today. About 12,500 trips were canceled from Oct. 28 until Tuesday, according to FlightAware, a Houston-based tracking company.
Off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, one person was killed and another was missing after the crew of the HMS Bounty, a replica of the vessel that was the scene of a 1789 mutiny, abandoned ship when it capsized in 18-foot seas.
In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie ordered evacuations of coastal barrier islands and casinos in Atlantic City, which was flooded. A large number of people were stranded as water levels rose. Christie said further evacuations from Atlantic City and the barrier island would be impossible until daylight.
In Connecticut, New London Mayor Daryl Finizio told WFSB television that Sandy was worse than the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. That storm, which produced tides of as much as 25 feet, killed 564, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. New Haven radio station WTNH reported two state residents, a firefighter and an 80-yearold woman, killed from falling trees.
“Thousands of people are stranded,” said Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy at a news briefing Monday night.