NEW YORK CITY
(Reuters) - Tens of millions of people along the U.S. East Coast girded
themselves on Sunday for Hurricane Sandy, a gigantic storm forecast to
assault the densely populated region with battering winds, dangerous
flooding and even heavy snowfall.
Sandy, expected to come ashore
late on Monday, could deliver a harsh blow to major cities in its target
zone including New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore and
Boston. Its center was forecast to strike New York-New Jersey area and
then move inland toward Philadelphia and the rest of Pennsylvania.
The sheer size of the storm
meant its effects would be felt from the mid-Atlantic states to New
England. Officials warned of widespread power outages that could last
for days.
In New York City, subway, bus
and train service will be suspended on Sunday evening and up to 375,000
people were ordered to evacuate from low-lying areas.
President Barack Obama,
speaking after a briefing at the federal government's storm response
center in Washington, called Sandy a "serious and big storm" and asked
residents to heed the orders of state and local authorities to protect
themselves from its onslaught.
"It's a very, very large
system," National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb said. "The storm
is going to carve a pretty large swath of bad weather, both water and
wind."
The storm could bring the
country's financial nerve center to a standstill, although the major
Wall Street exchanges said they planned to open as usual on Monday
because they have alternative facilities they can use.
Worried residents in the
hurricane's path packed stores, searching for generators, flashlights,
batteries, food and other supplies in anticipation of power outages.
New York City schools will be shut on Monday. Other local governments also announced school closures.
Gale-force winds were already
starting to buffet Virginia and could reach other parts of the
mid-Atlantic coast on Sunday night. Tens of millions of people will feel
its bluster for as long as two days, Knabb said.
Forecasters said Sandy was a
rare, hybrid "super storm" created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping
itself around a tropical storm, possibly causing up to 12 inches (30 cm)
of rain in some areas, as well as up to 2 feet (60 cm) of snowfall in
the Appalachian Mountains from West Virginia to Kentucky.
It could be the largest storm
to hit the United States, according to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) website.
Sandy was already disrupting
transportation systems. More than 700 flights, including international
ones, were canceled on Sunday and nearly 2,500 more were canceled for Monday, FlightAware.com said.
