HUNDREDS of thousands of people have been told to evacuate New York City as the United States braces itself for a devastating super-storm that is expected to lash large parts of the country from today.
• New York transport systems and schools closed as Hurricane Sandy, bringing winds of 80mph and up to a foot of rain, is expected to hit the eastern seaboard
• Flights from Scotland to New York on Monday have been cancelled as a precaution
• Sandy has headed north from the Caribbean, where it killed nearly 60 people and is set to collide with a wintry storm from the west, leading to a ‘megastorm’ that could wreak havoc over 800 miles from the east coast to the Great Lakes
Hurricane Sandy, which has already claimed the lives of 66 people across the Caribbean, was last night threatening the US east coast with punishing winds of 80mph and a potentially deadly wall of water up to 11ft high.
The hurricane, which has been dubbed “Frankenstorm” because of its monstrous size, is set to strengthen as it merges with a wintry storm from the western US.
Last night, British Airways announced it had cancelled all flights to New York and said it would suspend most services to and from the US east coast today.
Sandy could be the largest storm to hit the US, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) website.
“The time for preparing and talking is about over,” federal emergency management administrator Craig Fugate warned.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday took the unprecedented step of ordering 375,000 people to evacuate their homes and the city’s public transport system was due to shut down last night.
“If you don’t evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you,” Mr Boomberg said.
“This is a serious and dangerous storm.”
Mr Bloomberg added that 72 evacuation centres had been set up around the city in schools and community centres.
New York City’s subway, bus and train service were last night suspended, a move that could bring the country’s financial centre to a standstill.
New York Stock Exchange will close its trading floor this morning, but trading will continue electronically.
US president Barack Obama said the storm was “serious and big” and would be “slow moving”. He said: “People need to be acting now.”
The Obama administration estimated the hurricane could affect 50 million people.
The approaching storm forced a change of plans for both presidential candidates ahead of the election on 6 November.
The White House said Mr Obama had cancelled a campaign appearance in Virginia today and another stop in Colorado tomorrow, and would instead monitor the storm from Washington.
Republican challenger Mitt Romney rescheduled campaign events for Virginia last night and was flying to Ohio instead.
Forecasters said Sandy was a hybrid “super-storm” created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around a tropical storm, possibly causing up to 30cm of rain in some areas, as well as heavy snowfall inland.
The hurricane killed at least 66 people at the end of last week as it made its way through the Caribbean islands, including 51 fatalities in Haiti, mostly from flooding and mud-slides, according to authorities.
The imminent arrival of the hurricane set off a scramble for supplies from Virginia to New England, causing long lines at petrol stations, bare shelves at hardware and DIY shops, and a run on bread, bottled water and tinned food at supermarkets.
Last night, Sandy was at category one strength, with winds of up to 75mph, about 270 miles south-east of Cape Hatteras, and moving north-east at 14mph, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.
The storm is so big that forecasters could not say with any certainty where it would hit.
“We just can’t pinpoint who is going to get the worst of it,” said Rick Knabb, director of NHC.
The US is no stranger to the devastating effects of hurricanes. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of at least 1,833 people and caused about £81 billion of damage to property.