With the storm now officially grown to 1,000 miles wide, it is already being called the “Storm Of The Century”. Forecasters are saying, “A superstorm threatening 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation gained strength Monday.” Many of lost electricity already and the winds have reached 75 mph to 85 mph. Find out details after the jump.
- Deadly storm strengthens to nearly 1,000 miles wide as its bears down on the New Jersey shore
- National Weather Service warns NJ residents reluctant to evacuate to think about rescuers ‘who will recover your remains if you do not survive’
- New York City Mayor Bloomberg orders mandatory evacuation of 375,000 people from low-lying areas
- Subway closed at 7pm for at least 24 hours – the second time in history
- New York Stock Exchange closes trading floor on Monday
- More than 7,000 flights cancelled with backlog of tens of thousands
The Category 1 hurricane is accelerating, moving north-northwest at 20 mph after moving northeast Sunday night. At 8:00 a.m. ET the storm was centered about 310 miles south-southeast of New York City. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 175 miles from the storm’s center, with tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 485 miles.
Sandy is likely going to strengthen even more as it approaches the East Coast, Bernard reports, with hurricane-force winds reaching land by Monday afternoon. Flooding will be a huge threat, with many areas potentially seeing rainfall amounts between 5 and 8 inches over a 48-hour period.
