Hurricane Sandy pounds U.S. East Coast as it marches towards Canada

The U.S. East Coast came under an unrelenting assault from a historic, potentially calamitous hurricane that was gaining strength Monday as it lurched through America’s most populous region, charting a course for the largest metropolitan areas in Canada.

Hurricane Sandy was wreaking havoc for as many as 50 million people throughout the American mid-Atlantic hours before the eye of the storm was expected to make landfall in New Jersey or Delaware.

The scenes of carnage provided a grim glimpse to Canadians in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes of what might loom ahead later this week.

Most of Atlantic City, the famous tourist hotspot on the New Jersey shore, was underwater by midday on Monday and a portion of its storied boardwalk was washed away.

Water gushed over seawalls in lower Manhattan. Authorities closed the Holland Tunnel, linking Manhattan and New Jersey, fearful it would fill with water.

In the city’s mid-town, a wind-ravaged construction crane atop a skyscraper dangled 65 storeys over Carnegie Hall like a twig, forcing the evacuation of the area.

The New York Stock Exchange was shut down and was likely to remain closed on Tuesday. Subways and schools were closed throughout the region on Monday and Tuesday; more than 7,000 flights were grounded.

Just a week before the presidential election, thousands of Americans made their way inland, away from the perilous Atlantic coast, to seek shelter from the storm. Both U.S. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney suspended their campaigns.

The U.S. Coast Guard was searching for two crew members of the HMS Bounty, a three-masted tall ship that appeared in two Hollywood movies, after the vessel sank in stormy waters off North Carolina. Fourteen were rescued.

In Delaware, the popular vacation destination of Rehoboth Beach was underwater and buildings were in ruins. The situation was similarly grim in Ocean City, Md., where the town’s fishing pier had been destroyed and the streets were filling up with seawater.

Even the normally peaceful, burbling brooks of Rock Creek and Sligo Creek in D.C.’s Maryland suburbs were furious torrents of white water.

“The days ahead are going to be very difficult,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said. “There will be people who die and are killed in this storm.”

Gov. Daniel Malloy of Connecticut had a similarly bleak message: “Stay home. Let me repeat that: Stay home…. This is the most catastrophic event that we have faced and been able to plan for in any of our lifetimes.”

Sandy was already a monumental storm system when it picked up speed on Monday morning, resulting in sustained winds as powerful as 140 km/h.

The eye of the storm was expected to hit the New Jersey or Delaware shore later Monday, even though their coastal regions had already been devastated by the storm surge and fierce winds that preceded the heart of the tempest.

Once ashore, Sandy is expected to collide with two other weather systems — a massive cold front to the west and an Arctic mass heading south from Greenland — to create what’s known by meteorologists as a “perfect storm.”

Officials cautioned that New York City and Long Island were on track to feel the brunt of the monster.

They warned of a storm surge higher than three metres with the potential to swamp lower Manhattan, flood the city’s subway tunnels and paralyze an underground network of communication and electrical cables that service the world’s financial nerve centre.

Some 375,000 people live in lower Manhattan and other low-lying areas of New York City; despite orders to evacuate what’s known as “Zone A” on Sunday, thousands remained.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged those holdouts to get out immediately on Monday afternoon.

“If you are still in Zone A and can find a way to leave, leave immediately,” he said. “Conditions are deteriorating very rapidly and the window for you getting out safely is closing.”

Snow also posed a threat to the area. As much as a metre of heavy, wet snow was forecast for West Virginia. Pennsylvania and Ohio were also expected to get some snow.

Monday’s full moon was also expected to cause even greater flooding since tides will be at their highest.