Typoon Bopha carves across Philippines, killing scores of people

Typhoon Bopha carves across Philippines, killing scores of people

By Jethro Mullen, CNN

updated 10:35 PM EST, Tue December 4, 2012

Asia braces for 'catastrophic' typhoon

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: The death toll from the storm is now 77, the country's official news agency says
• The storm has churned across the southern Philippine island of Mindanao
• It has set off a landslide and blown away fragile houses, officials say
• The typhoon comes almost a year after a storm killed more than 1,200 people on Mindanao

(CNN) -- An intense typhoon has carved across the southern Philippines, destroying buildings, setting off floods and landslides and killing at least 77 people, authorities said Wednesday.

Typhoon Bopha struck the large southern island of Mindanao, which is rarely in the direct path of tropical cyclones, fueling fears that it could be as devastating as a storm that killed more than 1,200 people there almost a year ago.

Bopha, the most powerful typhoon to hit Mindanao in decades, had top winds of 175 kph (110 mph) as it came ashore over the city of Baganga early Tuesday. Millions of people, many of whom live in remote and unprepared communities, were in the storm's path, Philippine authorities and aid groups said.

Watch: iReporter captures Typhoon aftermath in southern Philippines

"It really is getting to be a very, very big typhoon and it's just starting," Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippine Red Cross, said Tuesday.

Trees have been uprooted and fragile houses blown away on Mindanao, Gordon said, adding that the corrugated iron roofs of some buildings were being carried through the air by the wind like "flying machetes."

At least 77 people have been killed so far as a result of the storm, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said Wednesday.

The typhoon has affected more than 120,000 people, demolished houses and stranded people in two Mindanao regions and parts of the Visayas region, according to the disaster agency. More than 85,000 people are in evacuation centers, it said.

A landslide in eastern Mindanao blocked a national highway, the news agency reported, leavening hundreds of people in buses, vans and cars stuck on the road.

Maintenance workers were using heavy equipment to clear the mud and rocks, said Dennis Flores, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Works and Highways cited by the news agency.

The tightly packed but fierce typhoon churned west northwest across the island, weakening slightly as it went, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said.

By Wednesday morning, the center of the storm was approaching the outlying western island of Palawan. But it continued to soak a wide area with heavy rain, raising the risk of mudslides and flash floods elsewhere.

The storm, dubbed "Pablo" in the Philippines, had blown up into a super typhoon at one point Monday as it moved over the ocean, with sustained winds greater than 240 kph -- the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported.

That wind speed is two and a half times the top winds of Severe Tropical Storm Washi, known in the Philippines as Sendong, whose heavy rains swept away entire villages in the same region in December 2011.

"Many emotional people in (Mindanao) trying to prepare for Pablo with Sendong fresh in their minds," Carin van der Hor, the Philippines director for the children's charity Plan International, wrote Monday on Twitter.

But local authorities have done a good job of relocating people out of vulnerable areas and preparing evacuation centers, said Gordon of the Red Cross.

Washi, on the other hand, caught many residents off guard. It was a weaker storm, but its torrential rain triggered landslides and flash floods in the middle of the night, when many people were sleeping. More than 1,200 people died and hundreds of thousands were left homeless, prompting a humanitarian crisis.

Ahead of Bopha's arrival on Tuesday, government agencies relocated more than 50,000 people to evacuation centers. They also moved millions of dollars worth of relief supplies into position for quick delivery to storm-hit regions and put emergency crews, the military and hospitals on standby.

School classes were suspended in many cities, and dozens of flights were canceled, according to the national disaster agency. Nearly 5,000 travelers were left stranded at ports across the country as of Wednesday because of disruption to ferry services.

Palau, a tiny island nation roughly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of Mindanao, had a close shave with Bopha earlier in the week as the typhoon churned past, catching some outlying parts of the archipelago.

"It was headed right toward Palau," said Derek Williams, a meteorologist for the U.S. National Weather Service in Guam. But at the last minute, "it just turned to the west and fortunately went south of them," he said.

"I really think they escaped the brunt of the storm," Williams said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, noting that Palau doesn't usually get hit by strong typhoons.

Bopha nonetheless brought down a lot of trees and caused widespread power outages in Palau, according to Williams.

"The fast movement of the system really prevented a lot of flooding," he said. "I think probably only a few inches of rain fell, so that's certainly good news, because Palau itself is susceptible to mudslides."

Website link: http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/04/world/asia/philippines-typhoon/index.html 

Phillippines typhoon death toll worsens

Philippines typhoon death toll worsens

More than 50,000 forced to flee as Bopha sweeps across south of country, with damage worst on island of Mindanao

• The Guardian, Tuesday 4 December 2012

A powerful typhoon made landfall in the south of the Philippines on Tuesday with heavy rain and gusts of up to 120mph Link to this video The toll of dead and missing from typhoon Bhopa in the Philippines has continued to climb in the worst-hit areas of the coutry's south.
At least 43 people died when torrents of water came down a mountain in New Bataan town in Compostela Valley province, on the island of Mindanao, and engulfed a school and village hall where people were taking shelter from the storm. Nine soldiers and an unspecified number of villages were missing, said army Major General Ariel Bernardo.
Six villagers drowned in floods in Montevista town, Compostela Valley, said a provincial spokeswoman. In nearby Davao Oriental province 51 people died, mostly in floods, while two men perished when fierce wind ripped their boat from its mooring and it sank on central Siquijor island, according to disaster response officials.
Bhopa, one of the strongest typhoons to hit the country this year, struck Davao Oriental at dawn on Tuesday then barrelled across southern and central provinces, triggering landslides, flooding and cutting off power in two entire provinces. It headed towards western Palawan province on Wednesday and was expected to blow out toward the South China Sea on Thursday.
Typhoon Bopha first hit the Davao region at dawn on Tuesday. Gusts of wind of up to 120 miles an hour ripped roofs from homes and a 300-mile wide band of rain flooded low-lying farmland. The storm toppled trees, triggered landslides and sent flash floods surging across the region's mountains and valleys.
Some 20 typhoons and storms normally lash the archipelago nation each year but the southern provinces are unaccustomed to such fierce weather. A rare storm that took the area by surprise last December killed more than 1,200 people and left many more homeless.
Officials were taking no chances this year, and on Monday the president, Benigno Aquino III, appealed for people in Bopha's path to move to safety and take storm warnings seriously.
"This typhoon is not a joke," Aquino said after meeting disaster-response officials. "But we can minimise the damage and loss of lives if we help each other."
Aquino outlined preparations, including evacuations and the deployment of army search and rescue boats in advance. Authorities also ordered small boats and ferries not to venture out along the country's eastern seaboard, warning of rough seas with waves of up to four metres high.
In Compostela Valley authorities halted mining operations and ordered evacuations to prevent a repeat of deadly losses from landslides and the collapse of mine tunnels seen in previous storms.
Bopha, a Cambodian word for flower or a girl, is the 16th destructive storm to hit the Philippines this year. Forecasters say at least one more storm may hit before Christmas.

Website Link:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/04/philippine-typhoon-bopha-kills-five

Nor'easter threatens weather-weary East Coast

 

Published: November 5, 2012    0

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. (AP) — A week after Superstorm Sandy pummeled the East Coast, wiping out entire communities, residents were bracing for yet another potentially damaging storm.

Laura DiPasquale sorts through bags of possessions that volunteers removed from her home in Point Pleasant Beach N.J. on Monday, Nov. 5, 2012. DiPasquale is frantically looking through them to see if well-meaning volunteers discarded anything she intended to keep before a second storm hits the shore on Wednesday, raising the possibility of renewed flooding and damage. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

A nor'easter taking shape Monday in the Gulf of Mexico was expected to begin its march up the coast, eventually passing within 50 to 100 miles of the wounded New Jersey coastline on Wednesday. The storm was expected to bring winds of up to 55 mph, coastal flooding, up to 2 inches of rain along the shore, and several inches of snow to Pennsylvania and New York.
One of the biggest fears was that the storm could bring renewed flooding to parts of the shore where Sandy wiped out natural beach defenses and protective dunes.
"It's going to impact many areas that were devastated by Sandy," said Bruce Terry, the lead forecaster for the National Weather Service. "It will not be good."
Some communities were considering again evacuating neighborhoods that were hit hard by Sandy and where residents had only recently been allowed to return. No town had made a final decision to do so as of Monday evening.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided against a new round of evacuations.
"When Sandy was coming in, all the signs said that we were going to have a very dangerous, damaging storm, and I ordered a mandatory evacuation of low-lying areas, something that a lot of people don't like to hear," he said. "In this case, we don't think that it merits that. It is a different kind of storm; the wind is coming from a different direction."
In Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., Laura DiPasquale was frantically going through dozens of black plastic trash bags that volunteers had stuffed full of her household belongings and brought to the curb, trying to make sure nothing she intended to keep had gotten tossed out with debris like waterlogged drywall. Already, she had found treasured Christmas ornaments amid the detritus.
"I don't know where anything is; I can't even find my checkbook," she said. "I have no idea what's in any of these bags. And now another storm is coming and I feel enormous pressure. I don't know if I can do this again. It is so overwhelming."
People were advising DiPasquale to just let go of most of the stuff in the bags.
"I found an ornament that says 'Baby's First Christmas.' People said, 'Laura, you don't need that,'" she said. "Yes, I do need that. I'll wash it, or I'll sanitize it, or I'll boil it if I have to. Money means nothing to me. Sentimental stuff is everything."
The new storm was expected to move up the coast Tuesday, past Georgia and South Carolina. By Wednesday morning, it was expected to be off Virginia or Cape Hatteras, N.C.
Terry said the storm could slow down somewhat once it gets off the New Jersey coast, meaning its effects could linger. They include rain, high winds and tidal surges, although less than those that accompanied Sandy.
Coastal flood and high wind watches were in effect for parts of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urged residents to take the storm seriously.
"Everything people did to get people ready for Sandy, we need to do for the nor'easter," she said.
She urged people to check on their neighbors, especially the elderly.
"We have people who want to stay in their homes," Napoletano said. "We know that."
On Staten Island in New York City, Irina Vainauskas and her husband survived Sandy even as water reached the third step of the staircase from their living room to their second floor. They went upstairs with food, water and their cats.
They're prepared to do it again, if necessary.
"Of course we're concerned, but we're just tired to be afraid and to think about everything," she said in her ravaged living room.
"We're survivors. We're from the former Soviet Union," she added. "If we survive the Soviet Union, we will survive this storm, too."
Marilyn Skillender was picking through the pile of her belongings at the curb of her home about two blocks from the ocean in Point Pleasant Beach, worrying about the next storm. She instantly flashed back to a December 1992 nor'easter that pummeled the Jersey shore over two days with widespread flooding and property damage. Her house was inundated in that storm, too.
"Our defenses are down now," she said. "As bad as last week was, if we get new damage, where are they gonna put all the new stuff that's wrecked? If this debris starts floating around, how will we be able to move? All that sand they plowed away, if it comes back again, I don't even want to think about it."
Jim Mauro was one of the few professing not to be overly concerned about the impending nor'easter. A house he owned in Mantoloking was literally wiped off the map by Sandy last week. It wound up in Barnegat Bay.
"What more can it do?" he asked. "I mean, the house is literally gone, right down to the bare sand where it used to be."
___
Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
___
Associated Press writers Michael Hill, Jennifer Peltz and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this story.

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Battered by storm, Staten Islanders feel forgotten

 

By MEGHAN BARR | Published: November 3, 2012    0

NEW YORK — Gazing at her bungalow, swept from its foundation and tossed across the street, Janice Clarkin wondered if help would ever come to this battered island off the coast of Manhattan.

Sheila and Dominic Traina hug in front of their home which was demolished during Superstorm Sandy in Staten Island, N.Y., Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has come under fire for pressing ahead with the New York City Marathon. Some New Yorkers say holding the 26.2-mile race would be insensitive and divert police and other important resources when many are still suffering from Superstorm Sandy. The course runs from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on hard-hit Staten Island to Central Park, sending runners through all five boroughs. The course will not be changed, since there was little damage along the route. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) ORG XMIT: NYSW106

“Do you see anybody here?” she asked, resignation etched on her face. “On the news, the mayor's congratulating the governor and the governor's congratulating the mayor. On what? People died.”
Staten Island was devastated beyond recognition by Superstorm Sandy and suffered the highest death toll of all of New York City's boroughs, including two young brothers who were swept from their mother's arms by the swirling sea and drowned. Yet days after the waters receded, residents feel ignored and forgotten.
That sense of isolation is deeply rooted on Staten Island, a tight-knit community that has long felt cut off from the bright lights of Manhattan — the city from which the island once tried to secede.
“It's always been that way. We're a forgotten little island,” said Catherine Friscia, who stood with tear-filled eyes across the street from the Atlantic Ocean in front of homes filled with water and where the air smelled like garbage and rotting fish.
“Nobody pays attention to any of us over here. Nobody.”
In the shadow of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, dazed survivors roamed Staten Island's sand-covered streets this week amid ruined bungalows sagging under the weight of water that rose to the rooftops. Their contents lay flung in the street: Mud-soaked couches, stuffed animals and mattresses formed towering piles of wreckage. Boats were tossed like toys into roadways.
Aside from a few fire trucks scattered along the shore, there were no emergency or relief workers in sight. Residents washed their muddy hands with bottled water and handed out sandwiches to neighbors as they sifted through the soggy wreckage of their homes, searching for anything that could be salvaged.
Spray-pointed on the plywood that covered the first floor of one flooded home were the words: “FEMA CALL ME.”
Sticking together in the aftermath of the storm has kept Staten Islanders who lost everything from completely falling apart. Self-reliance is in their blood just as the island's very geography lends itself to a feeling of isolation from the mainland: the only way to get on or off is by car, bus or ferry.
After the storm, residents who had evacuated had to wait until Wednesday to return, when the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge finally reopened to the public.
Most of the deaths were clustered in beachfront neighborhoods exposed to the Atlantic Ocean along the island's southeastern shore, an area of cinderblock bungalows and condominiums. Many of these homes were built decades ago — originally as summer cottages — and were not constructed to withstand the power of a major storm.
Diane Fieros wept as she recalled how she and her family survived by huddling on the third floor of their home across the street from the ocean, watching as the waves slammed into the house and the water rose higher and higher, shooting through cracks in the floor. A few blocks away, several people drowned.
“The deck was moving, the house was moving,” she said. “We thought we were going to die. We prayed. We all prayed.”
Fieros rode out the storm with her two sons, her parents and other extended family members. She pointed to a black line on the house that marked where the water rose: at least 12 feet above the ground.
“I told them, `We die, we die together,“' she said, her voice cracking. “You saw the waves coming. Oh my God.”
The storm has reopened old frictions among local officials who maintain Staten Island's infrastructure remains inadequate and that it has little sway on City Council compared to the other, bigger boroughs. In 1997, Staten Islanders voted in favor of seceding from New York City and incorporating on its own, buoyed by a belief that the borough pays more in taxes than it receives in return and that it's typically put last on the list for city services.
Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro suggested this week that people should not donate money to the American Red Cross because that relief agency had neglected his borough.
“We have hundreds of people in shelters throughout Staten Island,” he said. “Many of them, when the shelters close, have nowhere to go because their homes are destroyed. These are not homeless people. They're homeless now.”
The controversy surrounding this weekend's New York City Marathon, which was cancelled Friday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had special resonance among Staten Islanders. The lucrative race begins on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and would have brought nearly 50,000 runners to an area not far from the Staten Island neighborhoods where people died.
Resident George Rosado, 52, who spent two days scrubbing a thick layer of sludge from his tiled floors and was preparing to demolish the water-logged walls of his home, found the idea repulsive. Except for a lone hospital van offering bottled water and power bars, Rosado had seen no federal, state or local agencies in his neighborhood, which sits about a block from the ocean.
“Nothing, nothing,” he said, choking back tears. “We're hit hard. Homes are washed away. People are dying. Look around. You hear anything? It's quiet.”
The city's tourism officials have long complained that Staten Island is the one borough that nobody wants to visit. But that has never bothered the half-million people who reside in this community, which is more suburban than urban and has a high concentration of police officers and firefighters.
It's a place families are drawn to by the allure of having their own backyard and raising their children in a small-town atmosphere.
“We were all around family, you know what I'm saying?” said 68-year-old Joseph Miley, Clarkin's cousin. “A person went away and there was always somebody here to watch their house, watch their animals.”
In fact, so many relatives lived on the same street that they jokingly referred to it as “The Compound.”
That's all been wiped out now. The family's mud-spattered possessions lie dumped on the street; their homes will be bulldozed.
Billy Hague, 30, described paddling around the neighborhood looking for his missing 85-year-old uncle, James Rossi, who refused to evacuate before the storm.
“I kayaked back to the house and broke the windows and got in the house trying to find him,” he said. “I found the dog, but I didn't find him until the next day until the waters subsided.”
Rossi was among the 19 Staten Islanders claimed by the storm. His dog also drowned.
Hague, Clarkin and other now-homeless family members are bunking with relatives who live on higher ground, just beyond the reach of the devastating ocean waves. They have no idea where they will live. They do not have the money to rebuild their homes.
But they have each other. Amid the debris and the broken glass and the uprooted trees, an American flag blew in the breeze. Clarkin waved a dismissive hand at the scene of destruction. She considers herself one of the lucky ones.
“People perished,” she said. “This is stuff. That's all.”

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New storm bears down on Sandy-battered New York, New Jersey

 

By COLLEEN LONG and FRANK ELTMAN | Published: November 8, 2012    0

NEW YORK — A nor'easter blustered into New York and New Jersey on Wednesday with rain and wet snow, plunging homes right back into darkness and inflicting another round of misery on thousands of people still reeling from Superstorm Sandy.

Mike Duvalle points out a clear high waterline as he stands in the lower level of his home Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of the borough of Queens, New York. Duvalle was working to secure the property and close up openings to the building left in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, as a powerful nor'easter approached Wednesday. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) ORG XMIT: NYCR104

Under ordinary circumstances, a storm of this sort wouldn't be a big deal, but large swaths of the landscape were still an open wound, with the electrical system highly fragile and many of Sandy's victims still mucking out their homes and cars and shivering in the deepening cold.
As the nor'easter closed in, thousands of people in low-lying neighborhoods staggered by the superstorm just over a week ago were urged to clear out. Authorities warned that rain and 60 mph gusts in the evening and overnight could swamp homes all over again, topple trees wrenched loose by Sandy, and erase some of the hard-won progress made in restoring power to millions of customers.
“I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said. “We may take a setback in the next 24 hours.”
Exactly as authorities feared, the storm brought down tree limbs and electrical wires, and utilities in New York and New Jersey reported that some customers who lost power because of Sandy lost it all over again as a result of the nor'easter.
“I know everyone's patience is wearing thin,” said John Miksad, senior vice president of electric operations at Consolidated Edison, the chief utility in New York City.
Ahead of the storm, public works crews in New Jersey built up dunes to protect the stripped and battered coast, and new evacuations were ordered in a number of communities already emptied by Sandy. New shelters opened.
In New York City, police went to low-lying neighborhoods with loudspeakers, urging residents to leave. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg didn't issue mandatory evacuations, and many people stayed behind, some because they feared looting, others because they figured whatever happens couldn't be any worse than what they have gone through already.
“We're petrified,” said James Alexander, a resident of the hard-hit Rockaways section of Queens. “It's like a sequel to a horror movie.” Nevertheless, he said he was staying to watch over his house and his neighbors.
All construction in New York City was halted — a precaution that needed no explanation after a crane collapsed last week in Sandy's high winds and dangled menacingly over the streets of Manhattan. Parks were closed because of the danger of falling trees. Drivers were advised to stay off the road after 5 p.m.
Airlines canceled at least 1,300 U.S. flights in and out of the New York metropolitan area, causing a new round of disruptions that rippled across the country.
The city manager in Long Beach, N.Y., urged the roughly 21,000 people who ignored previous mandatory evacuation orders in the badly damaged barrier-island city to get out.
Forecasters said the nor'easter would bring moderate coastal flooding, with storm surges of about 3 feet possible Wednesday into Thursday — far less than the 8 to 14 feet Sandy hurled at the region. The storm's winds were expected to be well below Sandy's, which gusted to 90 mph.
By the afternoon, the storm was bringing rain and wet snow to New York, New Jersey and the Philadelphia area and creating a slushy mess in the streets. Eight-foot waves crashed on the beaches in New Jersey.
The early-afternoon high tide came and went without any reports of serious flooding in New York City, the mayor said. The next high tide was early Thursday. But forecasters said the moment of maximum flood danger may have passed.
Con Ed said the nor'easter knocked out power to at least 11,000 people, some of whom had just gotten it back. The Long Island Power Authority said by evening that the number of customers in the dark had risen from 150,000 to nearly 187,000.
Similarly, New Jersey utilities reported scattered outages, with some customers complaining that they had just gotten their electricity back in the past two day or two, only to lose it again.
On Staten Island, workers and residents on a washed-out block in Midland Beach continued to pull debris — old lawn chairs, stuffed animals, a basketball hoop — from their homes, even as the bad weather blew in.
Jane Murphy, a nurse, wondered, “How much worse can it get?” as she cleaned the inside of her flooded-out car.
Sandy killed more than 100 people in 10 states, with most of the victims in New York and New Jersey. On Tuesday, the death toll inched higher when a 78-year-old man died of a head injury, suffered when he fell down a wet, sandy stairwell in the dark, authorities said.
Long lines persisted at gas stations but were shorter than they were days ago. Ahead of the nor'easter, an estimated 270,000 homes and businesses in New York state and around 370,000 in New Jersey were still without electricity.
The storm could bring repairs to a standstill because of federal safety regulations that prohibit linemen from working in bucket trucks when wind gusts reach 40 mph.
Authorities warned also that trees and limbs broken or weakened by Sandy could fall and that even where repairs have been made, the electrical system is fragile, with some substations fed by only a single power line instead of several.

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Red Cross pushes back on Sandy response, calls it 'near flawless'

John Moore / Getty Images

Robert Munoz collects supplies from a mobile Red Cross unit on Nov. 7, in the Staten Island Borough of New York City.

By Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News

The American Red Cross, which bills itself as “the world's largest humanitarian network,” is pushing back against critics of its response to superstorm Sandy, with the head of the organization saying its relief effort has been “near flawless” despite criticism from stranded storm victims and elected officials.
Two weeks after the storm slammed the East Coast, leaving millions of residents without power and in need of food, warmth and shelter, the venerable nonprofit has taken a public battering over what many victims and some officials saw as a lackluster and unfocused response.

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Thomas Donovan, a 43-year-old software salesman who was helping an elderly couple toss out heavy furniture and appliances from their flooded home last week in the hard-hit New York City community of Breezy Point, is among the disillusioned.

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“Red Cross sucks," he said last week. "… I’m never giving them another dime.”
Red Cross officials have been trying to walk the fine line between diplomacy and defense in explaining why their Sandy relief efforts have not always been appreciated.

Two weeks after Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast, New Yorkers question whether help from the Red Cross will arrive. But CEO President Gail McGovern defends what she calls a massive relief effort. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.

Laura Howe, a spokeswoman for the organization, said that responding in a badly damaged, densely populated urban area, and the unique cold-weather hurricane, both posed significant challenges to getting needed supplies to the hardest-hit areas.
But she also noted that the Red Cross has mounted its largest domestic disaster response in five years, deploying its entire fleet of more than 320 feeding trucks and sending nearly 6,000 relief workers to the devastated areas, mainly in New Jersey and New York.
We are “putting our resources where the need is greatest,” Howe said.
And Gail McGovern, chief executive officer and president of the Red Cross, told NBC News’ Lisa Myers late last week that the response has been timely and well-organized: “I think that we are near flawless so far in this operation.”
“I know that there are people who have absolutely lost everything, that are cold, that are frightened, that are saying, ‘Where is the American Red Cross?’ and I am totally supportive of that. I understand their cry for help, but we are out there,” she said.
When asked about the storm victims who are complaining that they haven't seen the Red Cross in their neighborhoods, McGovern said that the organization is using social media to help guide them to areas that they haven't yet reached. "We are looking at every single one of those cries for help, and we are moving people and supplies as quickly as we can," she said.

Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

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A snowstorm hits the Northeast as residents are still struggling to pick up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

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The role of public punching bag is not new for the Red Cross, which has endured similar criticism after disasters like Hurricane Katrina, which hammered the Gulf Coast in 2005. The organization and its response are often held under a microscope, though federal and state government, the military and many other relief groups, also assist in recovery efforts.
'People are frustrated'
Howe, the Red Cross spokeswoman, said the anger felt by victims is not surprising, given what they are going through.
“We understand that people are frustrated,” she said Friday. “Anybody who has been without power, who has had to deal with this level of damage in their homes for this period of time, is bound to be frustrated and we completely understand that. I would also say that this disaster is bigger than any one organization.”

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As of Sunday, the Red Cross was sheltering some 3,700 people and had delivered more than 4.8 million meals or snacks, and more than 477,000 relief items, she said.
“We are doing everything that we possibly can to be in as many places as quickly as possible but this is a big operation and we’re up against a large geography and a large number of people that need to be served,” she added.
Such arguments don’t seem to carry much weight in communities severely affected by the storm.
James Molinari, president of the hard-hit Staten Island borough of New York City, on Nov. 1 labeled the organization’s response there “an absolute disgrace” and went so far as to urge its residents not to donate to the largely volunteer agency.
Donovan, the Red Cross critic helping in Breezy Point, said he and his friends have been helping clean up there for about a week and had worked on some 30 homes. The Brooklyn resident, whose family has had a house in Breezy Point since he was a kid, said he had seen only one of the group’s trucks there in that time.
“You don’t see them. They’re not here ... they’re just not here,” he said Thursday, a day after a nor’easter blew ashore, pushing another storm surge into water-logged areas and dumping about four inches of snow.
Other residents are more understanding.

John Makely / NBC News

Medeleine Dobriner, 66, of New Dorp, is at her third Red Cross shelter since Hurricane Sandy left her homeless.

At a nearby center being used to collect and hand out free food and cleaning supplies, 25-year-old Lauren Willis of nearby Roxbury said that she saw no sign of the Red Cross in the first days after Sandy hit on Oct. 29, flooding both her and her parents’ homes. Since then, however, it has been a regular, helpful presence in her community.
“We were down here for four days and we had nothing, I mean nothing. … We didn’t have any hot food” or water, said Willis, an emergency medical technician whose mother is a Red Cross volunteer. “Now they’ve come in, they’re doing great work.”
Getting the word out about a Red Cross presence in areas where communications are still in disarray after the storm also may feed the perception that the organization is absent. The organization said it was listing on its website the specific streets and communities where workers will be, but of course many storm victims still lack power, let alone Internet access.

A reporter saw a Red Cross mental health specialist in Breezy Point in the immediate aftermath of Sandy, and a few days later a Red Cross minitrailer was parked in the community. The organization’s website listed several visits to the community through Sunday. 
But, like Donovan, many residents interviewed over the last two weeks said they have not seen the Red Cross since the storm.
On Thursday, Red Cross volunteers Mary Gagnon and her husband, Dean, drove down Breezy Point’s main road, stopping to offer ham-and-cheese or roast beef sandwiches. The couple, both 65 and retired, are unpaid volunteers who drove a Red Cross minitrailer from Madison, Wis., to help out.
How you can help in Sandy's aftermath
“We’re out here. We’re all around. We’re everywhere,” said Mary Gagnon, noting that she and her husband rotate between communities at the direction of a central dispatch.
The Red Cross has raised some $117 million in the aftermath of the disaster, though officials say they can’t yet say how much has been spent on the relief effort. Calculating spending is complicated, because bills are still coming in and some services are covered by ongoing contracts, but Howe promised there would be a full accounting at the end of the response effort.
Charity Navigator, a nonprofit charity rating agency that aims to be a guide to intelligent giving, said the Red Cross received three out of four stars this year -- meaning it met most industry standards -- down from four the year before. Their ratings cover financial accountability and overall transparency.
Sandy effort a 'key indicator'Its president and CEO, Ken Berger, said his analysts have seen a slight decline in the Red Cross’ finances, such as fundraising efficiency. He also noted its working capital, equivalent to a “rainy day” fund, is not as large as they would like it to be.
“For an organization of this size and scale that’s somewhat unique in its expertise and reach, that they may not always be as fast as we’d like, they may not always be as responsive as we’d like, but … we think they’re overall performance at this point is OK,” Berger said.

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“There’s still this lingering sense since Katrina that Red Cross still has some work to do to redeem its reputation,” he added, noting the Sandy response may prove to be a “key indicator” of whether it has improved sufficiently.
Howe said the Red Cross was proud of their latest work but “would like it to be more perfect.”
To that end, it is making an intensive push into some of the most hard-hit areas in New York and elsewhere through Monday. Volunteers will climb the stairs of apartment blocks to hand out relief items, like a heated “shower in a bag,” hand warmers, garbage bags and work gloves, she said.
“While some people still need the blankets and the hand warmers, we’ve got others who are very much in the process of mucking out homes and they need the work gloves and the (dust) masks,” Howe said. “We’re really trying to make sure that we address that wide range of need that’s out there.”
But, Fran Menchini, 79, who plans to engage a private contractor to clean her flooded home in Breezy Point, said she doesn’t think the Red Cross had anything to offer her.
“I saw them up at FEMA (a claim center outside Breezy Point),” she said. “What would they do? Were they offering anything? No. I need services, I don’t need them to give me coffee.”
NBC News' Senior Investigative Correspondent Lisa Myers and Producer Talesha Reynolds contributed to this report.

October 2012 Global Weather Extremes Summary

By Christopher C. Burt

Published: 7:44 PM GMT on November 07, 2012

October 2012 Global Weather Extremes Summary

The biggest weather story for October was the amazing hybrid storm Sandy, which devastated the U.S. Mid-Atlantic States resulting in the deaths of at least 119. A further 67 lives was lost to the storm in Cuba and Haiti, which were also dealt devastating blows. An unprecedented heat wave afflicted Brazil and Bolivia. Cyclone Nilam struck southern India triggering deadly floods. A rare heavy snowfall occurred in the mountains of Australia west of Sydney.

Below are some of the month’s highlights.

NORTH AMERICA

The most powerful storm ever to strike the New Jersey coast, Hurricane Sandy, resulted in the loss of life of at least 110 people from Maryland to New Hampshire, the 2nd deadliest tropical storm to affect the U.S. in 40 years. Since the storm has been well covered already on Weather Underground by Jeff Masters, Angela Fritz, and myself in earlier blogs I will not rehash that information in this blog.



At one point the Euro model predicted Sandy to reach a minimum pressure of 934 mb while off the mid-Atlantic coast. In fact, the pressure fell as low as 940 mb while approaching the coast of southern New Jersey on October 29th.



Sandy’s circulation after moving inland over Pennsylvania on October 30th set up an unusual temperature pattern with warm air flowing into northern New England and Quebec while cold air and snow occured hundreds of miles to the south. A record daily high of 70° (21°C) was recorded in Burlington, Vermont while it was 27° (-2.5°C) and snowing in Hot Springs, Virginia. Map from UCAR.

A powerful anti-cyclone swept out of Canada and deep into the southern plains the first and second weeks of October. The temperature fell from 80°F (26.7°C) at Livingston, Montana on October 2nd to freezing with 2.4” of snow the following day. Denver saw 86° (30°C) on October 3rd and snow on October 5th. High winds gusting to 75 mph and sustained at over 50 mph from North Dakota to Oklahoma caused dust storms in western Kansas and Oklahoma briefly causing the interstate highways in the region to close following numerous traffic accidents.

Lihue, Hawaii (on the island of Kaua’i) tied its all-time maximum temperature record with a 91°F (32.8°C) reading on October 9th. This temperature has been measured on five other occasions in the past, most recently on September 4, 1936.

The lowest temperature measured in the northern hemisphere during October was -50.3°C (-58.5°F) at Neem, Greenland on October 31st.

SOUTH AMERICA and CENTRAL AMERICA

A prolonged and unprecedented heat wave that began in September continued to affect Brazil and Bolivia during October. Although historically October often sees record high temperatures occur this past month was exceptional. Hundreds of all-time maximum temperatures were recorded across Brazil including that for the nation’s largest city Sao Paulo with a 35.9°C (96.6°F) reading in its Central Park Observatory. The warmest reading in the country was 43.0°C (109.4°F) at Corumba on October 30th. This was the 3rd highest temperature ever reliably measured in the country (all-time record being 44.6°C (112.3°F) at Orleans on January 6, 1963. In Bolivia, at Puerto Suarez the temperature reached 43.3°F (109.9°F) smashing its old record of 41.0°C (105.8°F) by an amazing 4°F! San Matias (Bolivia) endured 12 days of temperatures that surpassed its former all-time maximum temperature (the peak being a reading of 42.3°C (108.1°F).

A mudslide in the jungles of northeastern Peru killed at least 11 on October 17th following torrential rains in the region.

EUROPE

It was a relatively quiet month for much of Europe. The U.K. was a bit cooler than normal (with some snow in the northern highlands toward the end of the month: 12 cm/5” measured at Copley, Durham on the 27th) but overall precipitation was close to normal. The highest temperature measured in the Kingdom was 18.8°C (65.8°F) at Holbeach, Lincolnshire on October 1st and the coldest -7.8° (18.0°F) at Braemer, Aberdeenshire on the 17th. The heaviest 2-hour rainfall was 70.4mm (2.77”) at Crombie County Park, Angus on October 12-13.

AFRICA

A drought in Zimbabwe combined with abnormally warm temperatures led contributed to the death of 19 elephants in the country’s Hwange National Park.

Flooding in central Nigeria October 8-11 displaced 10,000 people and washed crocodiles and even hippos into some homes.

ASIA

There were several powerful typhoons that affected East Asia during the month. The deadliest was Typhoon Son-Tinh that lashed the Philippines, Vietnam, and southern China October 25-31 with winds as high as 133 kl/h (83 mph) killing at least 30 people, mostly in the Philippines. Typhoon Praipiroon brushed southeastern Japan on October 18th causing little damage. Heavy rains in Yunnan Province, China caused a landslide that killed 18 on October 4th.



Typhoon Son-Tinh swept ashore in northern Vietnam causing considerable damage in Nam Dinh (pictured above). Five lives were lost in Vietnam and 27 in the Philippines. Photo from AFP.

Cyclone Nilam struck the coast of the southeastern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh on October 30-31 leaving a trail of destruction and killing at least 28, destroying 1200 homes, and displacing 150,000 residents of the region.

An all-time record high temperature of 38.8°C (101.8°F) was recorded at Makassar, Sulawesi in Indonesia. Temperatures above 38°C (100°F) are extremely rare in this sprawling archipelago that straddles the equator. The warmest temperature reliably measured in the country is just 39.5°C (103.1°F) at Jatiwangi, Java on November 19, 2006.

The hottest temperature in the northern hemisphere and the world this past October was a reading of 45.6°C (114.1°F) at Sulaibya, Kuwait on October 12th.

AUSTRALIA

Overall, temperatures were above average and precipitation slightly below average across Australia during October. A rare snowfall of around 1-2” blanketed the town of Hallet (elevation 2000’) northeast of Adelaide on October 11-12. It was the first October snowfall in 100 years for this normally temperate location. In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney up to 30cm (12”) was reported and 460 homes lost power at one point during the storm.



The first measurable snowfall in at least 100 years was recorded in Hallett, Australia north of Adelaide on October 12th. Photo by Trisha Flak.

The hottest temperature in Australia and the southern hemisphere during the month was 45.2°C (113.4°F) at Roebourne, Western Australia on October 21st and coldest reading was -7.2°C (19.0°F) at Perisher Valley, New South Wales on October 23rd. The greatest calendar day rainfall was 233mm (9.17”) at Ulladulia, New South Wales on October 12th.





Precipitation was below average across the southern half of Australia and wetter than normal in northern Western Australia during October (top map). Portions of Queensland experienced their lowest average minimum temperatures for October on record (bottom map). Maps courtesy of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

NEW ZEALAND

The warmest temperature measured in New Zealand during October was 26.8°C (80.2°F) at Gisborne, North Island on October 27th and the coldest -8.3°C (17.1°F) at Lake Tekapo, South Island on October 14th. This was also the lowest October temperature ever measured at Lake Tekapo since records began there in 1925. The greatest calendar day rainfall was 150mm (5.91”) at North Egmont, North Island on October 13th. Hokitika, South Island recorded its wettest October on record (although the POR only goes back to 1963) with a 507mm (19.96”) total (184% of average).

ANTARCTICA

The coldest temperature in the southern hemisphere and the world during October was -70.9°C (-95.6°F) recorded at Dome A on October 13th.

KUDOS Thanks to Maximiliano Herrera for global temperature extremes data and Jeremy Budd and NIWA for New Zealand data.

Website link: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/article.html

Hurricane Sandy Spins Up Climate Discussion

Hurricane Sandy Spins Up Climate Discussion

The destructive power of the U.S. east coast storm stems from factors that include, but are not limited to, global warming, Nature News reports

By Jeff Tollefson and Nature magazine

15
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Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the eastern U.S. Image: R. SIMMON/NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY

From Nature magazine.
The United States is reeling under the impact of a massive hurricane named Sandy, the second to hit the northeastern states in two years. Flooding and widespread blackouts have crippled New York City and parts of New Jersey. Even the upcoming US election is taking a back seat, as President Barack Obama has quit the campaign trail to oversee the federal response. Throughout, there has been frequent talk of global warming as a potential driver of such events, but scientists and the media are still struggling with how to communicate the complexities. Nature takes a look at the science behind the storm.
What is making Hurricane Sandy so devastating?
First and foremost is the sheer size of the storm. As it approached the United States’ eastern seaboard on Monday, hurricane-force winds (more than 118.5 kilometres per hour) extended some 280 kilometres from the centre of the storm, peaking around 145 kilometres per hour. Tropical-storm winds registering above 63 kilometres per hour extended outwards for up to 780 kilometres.
Why is it unusual?
Hurricane Sandy is potentially unprecedented, officials say, because of the meteorological context within which it has developed. First, before reaching land, it was feeding off unusually warm surface waters in the Atlantic Ocean. Second, whereas such storms tend to skirt the US coast before drifting to the northeast and dissipating at sea, Sandy has been influenced by a high-pressure system off Greenland that has forced it inland. In doing so, the storm has merged with a winter system moving in from the west, putting forecasters in the unusual position of having to issue snow advisories for a tropical-hurricane system. Finally, the effects of the storm may have been enhanced by a full Moon, which generally means higher than average tides.
What is the link to global warming?
Some scientists point out that we might expect to see more of these types of severe weather events in a warmer world — even if any one storm cannot be directly attributed to global warming. Earlier this month, a team at the Beijing Normal University in China found that big storm surges have increased in frequency since 1923, and that large-scale events are roughly twice as likely in warmer years than in colder ones. Others have talked about the potential that summer sea ice melt and increasingly open waters in the Arctic Ocean might be altering the flow of the jet stream that circles the Northern Hemisphere, leading to both hurricanes and the large winter storms that have hammered the northeast in recent years.
But the issue is far from settled, and climate change is not the only factor. For example, while sea surface temperatures are currently about  3 °C above average along the Atlantic coast, the expected increase due to global warming is just 0.6 °C, according to Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. So while the changing climate certainly plays a role, Trenberth says, there is plenty of space for natural variability.
Going forward, higher sea levels due to global warming are expected to compound the threat of more intense hurricanes. According to a modelling study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and Princeton University in New Jersey, published in February in Nature Climate Change [doi:10.1038/nclimate1389], the combined effects of climatology and a 1-metre increase in sea levels could mean that 100-year surge events occur every 3-20 years by the end of the century.
What does this mean on the ground?
The storm hammered much of the US east coast and an estimated 20% of the US population, from the Carolinas to New England. It drove an enormous storm surge as the anticlockwise winds drive water towards the coast to the north of the storm's centre, leading to severe flooding many areas. In New York City, officials said the surge may have broken a record set nearly 200 years ago, flooding tunnels and subways. Millions of people across the region are without power, and high water levels near New Jersey's inoperational Oyster Creek nuclear-power plant have prompted officials to put the facility on 'alert' — the second-lowest of a four-tiered warning system. Moreover, the storm could bring prolonged and intense precipitation as it moves inland. President Barack Obama has signed disaster declarations for 12.

How much is the damage expected to cost?
EQECAT, a consultancy based in Oakland, California, estimates that the economic losses from Hurricane Sandy could range from US$10 billion to $20 billion, and that insurance companies would be required to cover roughly half that. This is comparable to the $10-billion loss from Hurricane Irene last year, which included $6 billion in insured losses. Hurricane Ike wracked up $20 billion to $30 billion in damages in 2008, according to EQECAT, including insured losses of up to $12 billion.
How is the insurance industry dealing with evidence linking global warming to more intense storms?
This question has been ongoing for years, particularly for 'reinsurance' companies — the industry giants that insure insurance companies against major catastrophes. Nonetheless, Tom Larsen, a senior vice-president at EQECAT, says that the industry naturally focuses on the present, and that the impacts of climate change are both less clear and less pronounced today than they are expected to be in the future. “Few are directly accounting for global warming in their loss rates, but most are incorporating it into their strategic planning,” Larsen says.                                                                   
How long is Sandy expected to last?
The storm, which now looks more like a typical winter storm than a tropical hurricane, is projected to continue moving north over the next two days, then into Canada on Thursday and Friday.
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on October 30, 2012.

Website link:  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hurricane-sandy-spins-up-climate-discussion&page=2

Was Hurricane Sandy Caused by Global Warming?

As widespread power outages and flooding affect millions on the East Coast, speculation continues as to whether or not climate change caused the storm

By Teresa Welsh

October 30, 2012 RSS Feed Print

Millions were paralyzed by Hurricane Sandy as the storm swept up the East Coast Monday night into Tuesday. The storm made landfall in New Jersey but shut down federal government offices, public transportation systems, and schools in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
Before Sandy started towards the United States, it was responsible for over 60 deaths in the Caribbean. So far 18 have been reported dead across seven states, and millions are without power from the Carolinas to Ohio. New York City was hit particularly hard, with Lower Manhattan and seven subway tunnels in the East River flooding. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it could be four or five days before subway service is restored.
[See Photos: Hurricane Sandy Brings Dangerous Floods.]
As the disastrous effects of the storm become clear Tuesday, speculation begins as to whether or not the extreme weather event was caused by global warming. The topic remains controversial in the American political landscape, while research shows that climate change does have an effect on the severity and increased frequency in such storms. A recent report from University of Copenhagen's Centre for Ice and Climate said hurricanes in the southeast Atlantic have become more frequent over the past 90 years, with more storms in years where water temperature is higher.
"You can't say [global warming] caused any single event, but when we start to see a trend like this, I think it shows that there's a good chance these hurricanes wouldn't be happening without warming," said one of the report’s authors, Aslack Grinsted. "What I show is only correlation, but it's purely consistent with the hypothesis that warming goes along with more frequent, large hurricanes."
[Read: Hurricane Sandy May Force Pols to Discuss Climate Change]
Despite scientific evidence such as that found in the University of Copenhagen report, there continues to be disagreement as to whether or not humans are truly responsible for systematic warming and thus the subsequent severe weather events. Skeptics argue that the number of variables that go into the creation of a storm such as Hurricane Sandy makes it impossible to prove global warming was responsible:
"You can't take one rogue event like this and start ascribing anything but the current three phasing conditions that are leading to it," said David Robinson, a Rutgers University professor and New Jersey's state climatologist.

Website link:  http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2012/10/30/was-hurricane-sandy-caused-by-global-warming

Sandy Hits Coast, Floods New York

By JAMILA TRINDLE, MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN and MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL

Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal

Floodwaters from Sandy rushed into New York City late Monday, submerging cars up to their headlights on East 14th Street in Manhattan. The storm is expected to lash the Northeast through the week.

Superstorm Sandy carved a harrowing path of destruction through the East Coast on Monday, inundating Atlantic City and sending cars floating through the streets of lower Manhattan.
Accelerating Monday evening as it made landfall on the New Jersey coast, the storm promised a legacy as one of the most damaging ever to menace the Northeast, from North Carolina to New England.
Some 5.2 million people were left without electricity across the region Monday evening—the most since the 2003 blackout. In New York, more than 250,000 Con Ed customers from 39th Street south were left without power. One of the city's major hospitals was forced to evacuate patients late Monday when its backup power system failed.

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A top Consolidated Edison ED -0.86% official said it could take up to a week to restore power to the bulk of Manhattan neighborhoods plunged into darkness as the utility weighs the scope of damage left by the explosion that rocked a substation.
"It's sure shaping up to be a storm that will be historic in nature," said Louis Uccellini, director of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, a federal government agency.
The storm left a trail of death, and the toll is expected to mount; at least 10 deaths were blamed on the storm.
A fire destroyed at least 50 homes in a flooded neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens.

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A fire destroyed at least 50 homes in a flooded neighborhood in Queens. (Photo courtesy of nbcnewyork.com.)

A fire department spokesman said more than 190 firefighters were at the blaze in the Breezy Point section. He said two people suffered minor injuries.
Officials said the blaze was reported around 11 p.m. Monday.
Connecticut's governor, Dannel Malloy said thousands were stranded by rising water along the coastline of his state. He urged people in one-story homes to move to their roofs. "This is a Katrina-like warning we are issuing," he said.
The impact was mounting. As night fell Monday, a record breaking 13-foot surge of seawater hit New York City, flooding New York's Brooklyn-Battery tunnel, a major traffic artery, as well as portions of the city's subway system. Subway service could be crippled for "at least a week," the head of the municipal transportation authority said late Monday.
The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey declared an alert due to high water levels in its water intake structure, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday evening. An alert is the second lowest of four levels the NRC uses to characterize events at power plants, and the NRC said conditions were still safe at and around the plant in Lacey Township, N.J., and at all other U.S. nuclear plants.
Economic damages from Sandy, which is expected to affect some 20% of the U.S. population, could be in the range of $10 billion to $20 billion, according to EQECAT, a catastrophe-risk modeling firm. That compares to Hurricane Irene, which caused $10 billion in damage last year. Insured losses from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 alone topped $45 billion, adjusted for inflation.
Over the course of Monday, as winds strengthened to 90 miles per hour, waves swept away a historic pier in Ocean City, Md., Monday and left Atlantic City, N.J., largely submerged—the sea rushing over its iconic boardwalk, surging through the streets, and leaving hundreds of people in need of rescue.
In New York City, the backup power at NYU Langone Medical Center on First Avenue in Manhattan failed, prompting an emergency evacuation of patients, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday night.
"The one thing that we had not counted on, New York University's hospital backup power—in spite of them making sure, ensuring us that it's been tested—stopped working," the mayor said during a late news conference at the city's Office of Emergency Management in Brooklyn. "And we're working with them to help move people out."
In parts of West Virginia and Maryland, the National Weather Service issued a rare blizzard warning. "I can't ever remember a hurricane causing a blizzard warning," said Joe Palko, a Pittsburgh-based hydrologist with the National Weather Service.
At least 4.7 million public school students—about the population of Norway—stayed home Monday or will stay home Tuesday as a result of Hurricane Sandy, according to a Wall Street Journal tally. That estimate doesn't include private-school students; there may be more school closings that weren't reported to state education departments.
Sandy was relabeled from a hurricane to a posttropical cyclone on Monday evening. Earlier, its classification as a Category 1 storm, the least powerful category of hurricane, was deceiving. Scientists say the storm has an unusually low atmospheric pressure near its center, an important measure of a storm's strength.

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The National Weather Service warned of potential flooding in coastal areas and damage well inland. Up to 12 inches of rain were expected over some parts of the mid-Atlantic states. The storm shut down the federal government for a second straight day Tuesday.
Snow began falling in the mountains of West Virginia on Monday and was expected to intensify across Appalachia over the next day as Sandy collided with cold air from the west.
Coastal communities were already grappling with the storm's impact by early Monday. The Coast Guard rescued 14 members of the crew of the HMS Bounty—a replica "tall ship" built as a movie prop in the 1960s and used more recently in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." Two crew remembers were reported missing off the coast of North Carolina after the vessel sank in high seas. Late Monday, one of the two had been found.
Hurricane-force winds extended as much as 175 miles from Sandy's center. As of Monday, more than 14,200 flights had been canceled in and out of airports stretching from Washington, D.C., to Boston, according to FlightAware.com, a flight-tracking service—well above the roughly 10,000 flights canceled by airlines in August 2011 for Hurricane Irene.
Several major U.S. companies, including pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. PFE -0.54% and power-plant operator NRG Energy Inc., NRG -0.88% postponed quarterly reports because of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast.
President Barack Obama and the Republican challenger for the presidency, Mitt Romney, both canceled campaign events Monday and Tuesday. Mr. Obama returned to Washington from Florida to focus on a response to what he called a "difficult storm."
Federal emergency officials said they have plenty of money available—about $3.6 billion—to pay for disaster relief and response. That is a contrast to last year, when dwindling coffers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency led to a political fight after Hurricane Irene caused widespread, costly flooding in the Northeast.
State and local officials issued dire warnings about the storm to residents Monday, urging them to get out of harm's way. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley warned of possible fatalities and predicted Sandy would "sit on top of Maryland, and beat down on Maryland for a good 24-36 hours."
"There will be people who die and are killed in this storm," Mr. O'Malley said. Maryland suspended early voting on Monday and Tuesday.
During a news conference Monday evening, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie repeatedly attacked Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford for allowing people to stay in city shelters, including a school a block away from the boardwalk. "He was sending out a message that was counter to my message," Mr. Christie said. "I'm very disappointed."
Mr. Langford didn't respond to requests for comment. In a telephone interview on CNN Mr. Langford described Mr. Christie as ill-advised and misinformed.

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Mr. Christie also expressed concern about people who refused to evacuate from seaside areas. "It's just stupid," he said in public remarks Monday.
On the barrier island of Brigantine, 50% of residents refused to evacuate, state officials said. Many in Cape May, a national historic landmark, also planned to stay put, despite flooding Monday.
Overall, an estimated 116,000 New Jersey residents were under mandatory evacuation orders. Flooding near Atlantic City had already extended to waterways inland about 18 miles.
In flooded Atlantic City late Monday, National Guard and other officials were trying to rescue nearly 500 people from their homes, said Tom Foley, the city's director of emergency management. The city relies heavily on tourism; it drew 34.4 million visitors who spent an estimated $7.5 billion in 2008, the most recent figures available, according to a Rutgers University study.
In Delaware, many residents of beach towns heeded mandatory evacuation orders and a driving ban, and hunkered down at shelters, hotels, and friends' houses. Melissa Yeager, 27 years old, evacuated her home on the second floor of a building in a low-lying area in Lewes, Del., to ride out the storm at a high school with her two daughters, Rosemary, 6, and Krissy, 3.
"I wanted to make sure my children were safe and I knew this was the safest place for them," Ms. Yeager said as she played board games with her daughter.
In Philadelphia, officials worried about flooding from the Schuylkill River, which runs through the heart of the city.
In New York City, roughly 2,500 people had booked into emergency storm shelters, less than 4% of the total capacity, nearly 24 hours after Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered an evacuation of 375,000 people from the city's low-lying areas. Last year, when Mr. Bloomberg ordered the same evacuation of low-lying areas as Tropical Storm Irene barreled up the East Coast, roughly 60% complied, the mayor estimated.
In Brooklyn, police officer Ralph Tomeo found it hard to persuade people to heed evacuation orders. Dozens gathered Monday to gawk at the rising water levels along a waterfront. They carried takeout coffees, walked their dogs, and took pictures of one another standing in front of the crashing East River waves with their cellphones.
Kristin Franchock, who stayed with her husband and three children on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, N.Y., despite an evacuation order, said Monday night their basement was flooded with 8 feet of water and their power was out.
"Definitely a mistake to stay," said Ms. Franchock, who evacuated for Irene but this year decided not to.
On eastern Long Island, the Hamptons were under assault midday, with officials there reporting beaches being washed away, houses in danger of collapse and roads submerged. "This is a monster," said Gary Vegliante, the mayor West Hampton Dunes, a small village on Dune Road, a narrow barrier island that lost dozens of houses in the immense 1991 hurricane that became known as the "Perfect Storm."
New England was battered with winds and heavy seas. Waves crashed onto the harbor walk by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. In Wilmington, Mass., winds caused a tree fall on to a car, sending the driver to the hospital.
Storm warnings provoked extra jitters in Vermont, which only 14 months ago was ravaged by Tropical Storm Irene. "Everyone is really worried," said Susan Lipkin, owner of the Harvest Moon Bed & Breakfast in Rutland. Ms. Lipkin said she is bringing inside anything that could be a projectile and trying to "make sure everything will be here tomorrow."
—Heather Haddon, Reed Albergotti, Lisa Fleisher, Laura Nahmias, Jennifer Maloney, Will James, Jennifer Levitz, Kris Maher, Joseph De Avila, Mike Esterl, Jacob Gershman and Sean Gardiner contributed to this article.

Website link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204840504578086290411855054.html