Hurricane Sandy barrels toward Northeast; 'Get out before you can't'

 

Hurricane Sandy churned the Atlantic Ocean as it barreled northward bringing fierce winds, drenching rains and flooding to the nation’s Northeast, where officials warned residents to stay home and ordered those along coastlines to head to high ground.

“Get out before you can't,” Connecticut's governor, Dannel Malloy, told residents of his state early Monday. 

Christie said Monday that there was already flooding along the Barrier Islands and said the flooding will increase later in the day as the high tide rolls in. In addition, there were 35,000 people without power in the state.

Sandy, described as a behemoth superstorm that is strengthening as it moves toward land, was about 300 miles southeast of New York at 8 a.m., according to the National Hurricane Center.  The center of the storm is expected to hit in the mid-Atlantic coast around southern New Jersey and is expected to impact some 50 million people in the nation's most heavily populated corridor. 

Sandy is belting sustained winds of more than 85 mph with higher gusts and is moving north and westward at about 20 mph.

Part of the problem was Sandy’s sheer size. Hurricane-force winds were clocked up to 175 miles from the storm's center, with tropical storm-force winds blowing as much as 485 miles from the center, meteorologists said.

New York's harbor, bridges and major roads--normally a frenzy of Monday morning commuters--were quiet as the sun rose. Whitecaps dotted the waters around the Statue of Liberty, lower Manhattan, and in the East and Hudson rivers, where all ferry service was halted. Street signs shuddered in the wind, which howled as it roared down the narrow avenues of Manhattan, which were turned into wind tunnels.

Schools were ordered shut across several states and even the federal government closed down, as did Wall Street trading. Transportation was at a crawl because of bridge and tunnel closures and thousands of flights were canceled.

As many as half a million people--10% of the region’s population--were warned by their elected leaders to head to high ground before the worst of the weather hits.

PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy approaches

Forecasters said the hurricane could blow ashore Monday night or early Tuesday along the New Jersey coast, then cut across into Pennsylvania and travel up through New York on Wednesday.