(SHIP BOTTOM, N.J.) — Forget distinctions like tropical storm or
hurricane. Don’t get fixated on a particular track. Wherever it hits,
the behemoth storm plodding up the East Coast will afflict a third of
the country with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow, say
officials who warned millions in coastal areas to get out of the way.
“We’re looking at impact of greater than 50 to 60 million people,”
said Louis Uccellini, head of environmental prediction for the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As Hurricane Sandy trekked north from the Caribbean — where it left
nearly five dozen dead — to meet two other powerful winter storms,
experts said it didn’t matter how strong the storm was when it hit land:
The rare hybrid storm that follows will cause havoc over 800 miles from
the East Coast to the Great Lakes.
(PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy Wreaks Havoc in Caribbean)
Governors from North Carolina, where steady rains were whipped by
gusting winds Saturday night, to Connecticut declared states of
emergency. Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal
communities by 8 p.m. Sunday.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was criticized for not
interrupting a vacation in Florida while a snowstorm pummeled the state
in 2010, broke off campaigning for Republican presidential nominee Mitt
Romney in North Carolina on Friday to return home.
“I can be as cynical as anyone,” said Christie, who declared a state
of emergency Saturday. “But when the storm comes, if it’s as bad as
they’re predicting, you’re going to wish you weren’t as cynical as you
otherwise might have been.”
Eighty-five-year-old former sailor Ray Leonard agreed. And he knows to heed warnings.
Leonard and two crewmates in his 32-foot sailboat, Satori, rode out
1991′s infamous “perfect storm,” made famous by the Sebastian Junger
best-selling book of the same name, before being plucked from the
Atlantic off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., by a Coast Guard helicopter.
“Don’t be rash,” Leonard said Saturday from his home in Fort Myers,
Fla. “Because if this does hit, you’re going to lose all those little
things you’ve spent the last 20 years feeling good about.”
Sandy weakened briefly to a tropical storm Saturday but was soon back
up to Category 1 strength, packing 75 mph winds. It was about 260 miles
(420 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and moving
northeast at 13 mph as of 5 a.m. Sunday, according to the National
Hurricane Center in Miami.
(PHOTOS: The Most Destructive U.S. Hurricanes of All Time)
The storm was expected to continue moving parallel to the Southeast
coast most of the day and approach the coast of the mid-Atlantic states
by Monday night, before reaching southern New England later in the week.
It was so big, however, and the convergence of the three storms so
rare, that “we just can’t pinpoint who is going to get the worst of it,”
said Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Officials are particularly worried about the possibility of subway flooding in New York City, said Uccellini, of NOAA.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority to prepare to shut the city’s subways, buses and suburban
trains. The city closed the subways before Hurricane Irene last year,
and a Columbia University study predicted that an Irene surge just 1
foot higher would have paralyzed lower Manhattan.
Up and down the Eastern Seaboard and far inland, officials urged residents and businesses to prepare in ways big and small.
On Saturday evening, Amtrak began canceling train service to parts of
the East Coast, including between Washington, D.C., and New York.
Airlines started moving planes out of airports to avoid damage and
adding Sunday flights out of New York and Washington in preparation for
flight cancellations on Monday.
The Virginia National Guard was authorized to call up to 500 troops
to active duty for debris removal and road-clearing, while homeowners
stacked sandbags at their front doors in coastal towns.
(MORE: How Do Weather Reporters Stay Safe in a Hurricane?)
“You never want to be too naive, but ultimately, it’s not in our
hands anyway,” said Andrew Ferencsik, 31, as he purchased plywood and
2-by-4 lumber from a Home Depot in Lewes, Del.
Utility officials warned rains could saturate the ground, causing
trees to topple into power lines, and told residents to prepare for
several days at home without power.
President Barack Obama was monitoring the storm and working with
state and locals governments to make sure they get the resources needed
to prepare, administration officials said.
In North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a group of about 20 people was
forced to wait out the storm on Portsmouth Island, a former fishing
village that is now uninhabited and accessible only by private ferry.
“We tried to get off the island and the ferry service shut down on us,” said Bill Rowley, 49, of Rocky Mount, N.C.
Rowley said he could see 15-foot seas breaking over the island’s dunes, enough to bring water to the island’s interior.
“We’ll be inundated and it’ll probably be worse tomorrow,” he said.
In New Jersey, hundreds of coastal residents started moving inland.
Christie’s emergency declaration will force the shutdown of Atlantic
City’s 12 casinos for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of
legalized gambling here. City officials said they would begin evacuating
the gambling hub’s 30,000 residents at noon Sunday, busing them to
mainland shelters and schools.
The storm also forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules.
Romney scrapped plans to campaign Sunday in Virginia and switched his
schedule for the day to Ohio. First lady Michelle Obama canceled an
appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a planned
Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night to beat the storm. He also
canceled appearances in Northern Virginia on Monday and Colorado on
Tuesday.
By ALLEN G. BREED and WAYNE PARRY
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