Sandy,
one of the biggest storms ever to hit the US, battered the coastline of
New Jersey, where a large number of Indian families reside, with 80 mph
winds, pushing seawater up by an unprecedented 13-feet in New York
City.
Floods
inundated large number of areas in New York and New Jersey and an
explosion at a sub-station on the east side of Manhattan's Midtown left
500,000 people without power.
Eyewitnesses
said a huge ball of blue light exploded over Manhattan last night
believed to be a powerful blast at Consolidated Edison station.
The
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) declared an alert at the Oyster
Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey, which is currently in a
regularly scheduled outage, as the water level reached the minimum high
level criteria."Water
level is rising in the intake structure due to a combination of a
rising tide, wind direction and storm surge. It is anticipated water
levels will begin to abate within the next several hours," the NRC said.
According
to NRC, no plants had to shut down as a result of the storm although
several plants were already out of service for regularly scheduled
refueling and maintenance outages. All plants remain in a safe
condition, with emergency equipment available if needed and NRC
inspectors on-site.
The
storm left a trail of death, and the toll is expected to mount. Two
people perished in Mendham, New Jersey, when a tree struck their car,
officials said.
In
New York State, at least six persons were killed, including a
30-year-old man who died when a tree fell on his house. Two people died
in other incidents. It also flooded ground-zero, the site of the 9/11
terror attacks here. There was also report of damage to facade of a
building in Manhattan.
Two
people were killed in Pennsylvania and a woman in Maryland died after
hydroplaning into a tree, officials said. Authorities evacuated more
than 200 patients and staff of a New York City hospital after its backup
generator failed when the power was knocked out by the super storm.
According
to initial estimates, the devastation has resulted in a loss of USD
10-20 billion. Sandy is no longer a hurricane because it's drawing
energy from temperature differences and not the ocean, making the
transition to a super storm that may push a wall of water ashore in the
Northeast and lash the East with wind and rain.
John
F Kennedy airport in New York City and other airports in the region
have been shut down with more than 13,000 flights being cancelled in the
storm affected areas. New York and New Jersey registered a record level
of rainfall and shut down major transportation arteries.
Emergency
has been declared in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode
Island. The storm affected more than 50 million people along the entire
East Coast from North Carolina to New Hampshire.
President
Barack Obama cancelled his election campaign schedule mid-way and
rushed back to the White House to personally monitor the situation. "I
am not worried at this point about the impact on the election. I'm
worried about the impact on families, and I'm worried about the impact
on our first responders. I'm worried about the impact on our economy and
on transportation," Obama said at a White House news conference soon
after he held a situation room meeting on the hurricane preparedness.
"You
know, the election will take care of itself next week. Right now, our
number-one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives, that our
search-and-rescue teams are going to be in place, that people are going
to get food, the water, the shelter that they need in case of emergency,
and that we respond as quickly as possible to get the economy back on
track," Obama said.
Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger in the November 6 presidential elections, also cancelled his campaign.
Sandy forces shutting of NYSE, Nasdaq for second day
New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq remained closed for the second
consecutive day, the first time since 9/11, as super storm Sandy swept
across New York City, leaving the Wall Street powerless. NYSE Euronext
and Nasdq OMX Group said they made their decision in consultation with
industry executives and regulators, a
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