Hurricane Sandy could trigger deadly storm surge — and ‘take out’ the internet
The tech giants are believed to be fortifying their centres before the hurricane is due to strike tonight.
Major US cities including New York and Washington are braced today for a superstorm that threatens up to 50million Americans.
Fierce ... Nasa image of Hurricane Sandy
REX
Hurricane Sandy was heading north from the Caribbean — where it left nearly five dozen people dead — to meet a winter storm and cold front, plus high tides and a full moon.
Experts predicted the resulting rare hybrid storm could be the “worst ever” to hit the US mainland.
Forecasters are predicting a potentially lethal “storm surge” as the hurricane hits Long Island Sound near New York.
Flooded ... street between two casinos along the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Fears ... Americans prepare for battering
Empics
Public transport networks, including subways, buses and commuter trains, as well as schools, have been shut down in areas including New York.
There are fears that parts of lower Manhattan could be swamped by the storm surge, flooding subway tunnels and crippling electrical and communications lines.
Sandy is predicted to wreak havoc across the eastern seaboard including the state of Virginia which is home to centres for Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Google providing data “cloud” storage.
Stocking up .. worried New Yorkers buy up supplies
Reports also say that the United States government also stores information on Amazon’s data centres.
Web experts Slashdot reported its fears after a violent storm in took out popular mobile photo-sharing service Instagram in June.
Slashdot commented: “With thousands of businesses and organizations relying on the cloud to store data the need to have exceptional security is standard. With the potential for hurricanes to increase in strength over the coming years, the effects of a hurricane hitting a cloud center could be substantial. Thankfully, many cloud providers take security seriously and work to ensure that data is both available and protected.”
Danger ... the storm seen from space this morning
NEW York transport system shuts down, with airports closed, as the region prepares for Hurricane Sandy
Yesterday 375,000 residents of low-lying areas of New York were told to evacuate — and Governor Chris Christie urged New Jersey locals: “Don’t be stupid. Get out.”
Stephen Davenport, senior meteorologist at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said Sandy may be losing power but is still expected to hit land at hurricane force.
He said: “Of course there will be fearsome winds before the centre hits so the winds will be building all the time today and could get up to 50mph-75mph.”
He said the storm is particularly large, affecting an area “half the size of Texas”.
New York is at the northern side of the hurricane, which is likely to produce a storm surge around Long Island Sound, he said.
“It’s going to be pushing the sea up there, so there’s going to be a strong storm surge up Long Island Sound. This will be why the mayor has ordered the transportation to be closed down.”
Asked how category one Hurricane Sandy compares with 2005’s deadly Hurricane Katrina, he said: “It’s not comparable at all. This is a category one and Katrina was a category five.
“But you don’t normally get hurricanes moving across the mid-Atlantic or near New York so people are somewhat less prepared for the possibility of hurricane.”
As rain from the leading edges of the monster hurricane began to fall, the 12 casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, shut down for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of legalised gambling there.
And as winds started to build today, 17 people on board the tall ship the HMS Bounty were forced to abandon the vessel as it started to take on water and was left stranded around 90 miles (145km) south-east of Hatteras in North Carolina - around 160 miles (258km) west of the eye of Hurricane Sandy.
Disruption ... UK flights cancelled to New York
The coast guard in North Carolina received a call from the owner of the 180ft (55m), three-mast tall ship saying she had lost communication with the vessel’s crew late yesterday evening.
The ship - which featured in Pirates of the Caribbean - was reportedly taking on water and was without propulsion in 40mph (64kph) winds and 18ft (5.5m) seas.
The coast guard later confirmed it had been informed that the 17-person crew had abandoned ship.
“The 17-person crew donned cold water survival suits and lifejackets before launching in two 25-man lifeboats with canopies,” the coast guard said.
Abandon ship ... HMS Bounty
“The coast guard continues to monitor the situation and assess the weather conditions to determine the soonest coast guard aircraft or surface assets can be on scene to conduct effective rescue operations.”
STUNNING footage released by space agency reveals full magnitude of superstorm
Thousands of Britons had their American travel plans wrecked as the hurricane bore down on the US East Coast, with flights axed by British Airways as well as Virgin Atlantic.
British Airways had to axe all its flights to and from New York, Newark, Baltimore, Washington DC, Boston and Philadelphia.
This amounted to around 20 return flights, with a decision due to be made later today about tomorrow’s BA services to and from the American East Coast cities.
Virgin Atlantic also had to scrap its East Coast services today, cancelling flights to and from New York, Newark, Boston and Washington.
Virgin also axed flights from Newark and New York that had been due to arrive at Heathrow tomorrow morning.
Predicted route ... of Hurricane Sandy
Sandy was expected to hook left towards the mid-Atlantic coast and hit land late Monday or early Tuesday — most likely in New Jersey.
Forecasters said giant waves and high tides made worse by the full moon could drive an 11ft wall of water towards New York City, Long Island and northern New Jersey.
From above ... horror clouds
They also warned the superstorm could bring nearly a foot of rain, a potentially lethal storm surge and punishing winds stretching hundreds of miles. It could even dump up to 2ft of SNOW in Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia.
States of emergency were declared across the threatened area. New York and Philadelphia shut down their subways, buses and commuter trains last night and announced schools would be closed on Monday. Boston, Washington and Baltimore also cancelled school.
Warning ... signs to keep public out of water
Wary shopkeepers boarded up their premises in readiness for the arrival of the storm.
Presidential rivals Barack Obama and Mitt Romney could also see their campaign plans disrupted - as many areas they seek to canvass go into shutdown.
Shutdown ... Manhattan
British Airways has grounded all flights to and from the US Eastern Seaboard, including New York, Baltimore, Washington, Boston and Philadelphia.
A number of BA flights from the US to London have also been halted.
Virgin Atlantic has cancelled flights to and from New York, Washington and Boston.
A statement on BA’s website said: “We understand that customers may be disappointed, however their safety is our highest priority. We are offering the option to rebook or receive a refund to those customers whose flights are cancelled."
Ready ... boarded-up shop in Delaware
Despite the dire warnings, some locals were still refusing to leave.
Jonas Clark, of Manchester Township, New Jersey — right in the area where Sandy was projected to come ashore — stood outside a shop, calmly sipping a coffee.
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