Hurricane Sandy - Day 1

NASA View of Sandy

Monday, October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy approached the US. I had to work from home since the Federal Government shut down with a state of emergency for DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

Below are news excerpts and my take on the storm:

A fast-strengthening Hurricane Sandy churned north Monday, raking ghost-town cities along the Northeast corridor with rain and wind gusts. Subways and schools were closed across the region of 50 million people, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was deserted, and thousands fled inland to await the storm's fury.

The Atlantic City Boardwalk and Ocean City, MD Boardwalk were destroyed even before the eye of the storm hit land.

Ocean City, MD Pier Destroyed

The monster hurricane was expected to make a westward lurch and aim for New Jersey, blowing ashore Monday night and combining with two other weather systems - a wintry storm from the west and cold air rushing in from the Arctic - to create an epic superstorm. This is an extremely cold Hurricane, temperatures are normally at least 60 degrees but it feels 37 outside.

The wintry storm is hitting West Virginia and they have blizzard conditions, with up to 3 feet of snow was forecasted for the West Virginia mountains. Michigan is even seeing the effects of the hurricane with 18 feet waves at the Great Lakes. This is one powerful and very large (1000 miles wide) storm system since it is combing with the wintry storm.

Sandy, a Category 1 hurricane, was blamed for 65 deaths in the Caribbean before it began traveling northward, parallel to the Eastern Seaboard. As of 2:20pm., it was moving at 23 mph, with hurricane-force winds extending an extraordinary 155 miles from its center.

The storm is taking a strange path, hitting New Jersey, going back west/south to hit DC, then turning again to go back up North. We have tropical storm winds and the eye hasn’t hit land yet. Once the eye hits land, we will have hurricane force winds.  Did I forget to mention that in New York City, a crane on top of a sky skraper has crumbled and is dangling?  Uh huh and the worst hasn't happend there.

My power has already flickered a few times and normally I do not lose power, so this is bothersome. The worst of the storm should hit us after 7pm, going through Tuesday. More to come.