Tagged: Hurricane Sandy

New York City has been experiencing the brunt of Sandy. The New York Times reports that one death has been reported when a tree fell on a man's house in Queens. NPR's Margot Adler reports that the New York State Homeland Security and Emergency Services estimates four others are dead. The situation in Lower Manhattan sounds dire: Flooding is now widespread and a good part of the city is in the dark.

Economists will need many days — maybe weeks or months — to assess the financial harm being done by Hurricane Sandy. But whatever the final figure, it will be huge, well into the tens of billions of dollars.

More than 60 million Americans are feeling the impact of the weather monster slamming New York, New Jersey, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and many other states. The howling mix of wind, rain and snow is causing massive direct losses, i.e., the destruction of private homes, stores, boats and cars.

"The time for preparing and talking is about over." That's the message from Craig Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as Hurricane Sandy, the monstrous superstorm that's churning its way to the U.S. East Coast, threatening millions of people.

The dreaded monster storm aiming for the eastern United States is barely keeping its hurricane status, but weather forecasters continue to sound the alarm: Hurricane Sandy will likely be one of the worst storms to strike in many, many years.

Weather forecaster Bryan Norcross at Wunderground isn't warning - he's shouting:

"The threat from this situation is serious as a heart attack for anybody near the rising water."