'Frankenstorm' Sandy heads for New York

Hurricane Sandy shadowed the east coast of the United States Sunday, raking the Carolinas with stinging rains and high waves as authorities braced for the potentially devastating "Frankenstorm" days before the US elections. The looming superstorm played havoc with the US presidential race, with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both cancelling campaign events and scrambling to rearrange schedules with the November 6 polls just nine days away. President Barack Obama moved up a campaign trip to Florida Sunday so he could be back in Washington when the storm makes landfall, predicted for early Tuesday somewhere between Virginia and Massachusetts. At 1200 GMT, the storm was 260 miles (420 kilometers) southeast of Cape Hateras, North Carolina, packing sustained winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.Sandy earlier claimed at least 66 lives in the Caribbean, most of them in impoverished, quake-ravaged Haiti where 51 people were reported killed. Though still far out at sea, the storm was already making its presence felt on US territory, spinning off high winds and seas for hundreds of miles around. Television images from North Carolina's Outerbanks, a chain of low lying barrier islands, showed wild surf and pelting wind-driven rains that offered a foretaste of conditions to come further north. The NHC warned residents to expect "life-threatening storm surge flooding to the Mid-Atlantic coast, including Long Island Sound and New York Harbor."  At the National Weather Service, forecasters warned the storm would "result in significant impacts along coastal North Carolina" beginning late Saturday. Current projections show the storm making landfall early Tuesday on the coast of Delaware at near hurricane strength, then bending north and inland as it merges with a cold front descending from Canada. Weather experts say that collision of a rain-laden tropical storm with a cold front is an explosive mix, creating a super-charged weather system bringing floods, high winds and even heavy snow across a swath of eastern states and as far inland as Ohio. Anticipating the worst, governors declared states of emergency in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the US capital Washington and a coastal county in North Carolina."This is a large storm that is forecasted to impact the Mid-Atlantic and other parts of the East Coast with strong winds, coastal flooding, inland flooding, rain and snow," said Craig Fugate, head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. "Sandy will be more like a large nor'easter on steroids," wrote Alex Sosnowski, a senior meteorologist for Accuweather.com, who said it could lead to billions of dollars in damage. In Delaware, Governor Jack Markell issued an evacuation order, urging coastal residents and those in flood-prone areas to leave their homes to stay safe.  "Please take this evacuation order seriously. It will help save lives of both residents and first responders," he said in a message on Twitter.New Jersey also ordered evacuations for its southern coastline, including Cape May and Atlantic counties and Long Beach Island. The governor also ordered all gambling shut down in beach-side Atlantic City starting at 3 pm on Sunday. Tolls were suspended on the northbound and westbound lanes of the state's major highways to help residents leave more quickly. In New York City, Mayor Mike Bloomberg was warning residents via Twitter to "stock up on basic supplies and make a go bag." He said city parks would be closed after 5 pm on Sunday, because of "the hazards posed by high winds."  New York City's transportation authority said it could begin closing down the city's massive metro and bus system, which serves 8.5 million people, at 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) Sunday in anticipation of the storm.  "Suspending the largest transportation system in North America is a monumental effort, and it is imperative that we start the process before we make a final decision, and before the worst of Hurricane Sandy reaches us," said MTA chief Joseph Lhota. Train provider Amtrak, meanwhile, announced it was canceling some service on Sunday, including two trains on the popular route between Washington and New York.  Storm damage and prolonged power outages could also have a major impact on voter turnout and polling station readiness, throwing a wrench into what was already a very close presidential race. Meteorologists have nicknamed the unusual confluence of weather patterns a "Frankenstorm" because it is due to hit just before Halloween on October 31 and is composed of parts from different sources, as was Frankenstein's monster.