U.S.

Hurricane Sandy Hits the East Coast

This is a continuation of our live blog updates from Monday, October 29. For the most recent news on the storm, please click here.

By Adam Clark Estes, Connor Simpson, Alexander Abad-Santos, and Dashiell Bennett
This article is from the archive of our partner .

This is a continuation of our live blog updates from Monday, October 29. For the most recent news on the storm, please click here.

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MONDAY:

12:23 a.m. The worst parts of the storm seem to be over in New York City. The latest report (11 p.m. EST) from the National Hurricane Center has has maximum sustained winds of 75 m.p.h. This is the latest GIF of the storm:

Mayor Bloomberg says the storm surge at the Battery has gone down considerably.

The New York Times' Michael Schwartz reports the explosion at the 14th St. station knocked power out to 250,000 people alone:

The explosion occurred on Monday evening at a substation in the vicinity of 14th Street and the FDR Drive, Mr. Miksad said. The precise cause of the blast was unknown, but Mr. Miksad said flood waters or flying debris could have been involved. It knocked out power to about 250,000 people, he said.

The rest of the night is going to be about emergency responders being able to rescue people who are either trapped or were hurt in the storm. The best thing to do is stay inside, probably because it's after midnight and you should go to bed, but also to stay out of there way.

11:57 p.m. A lot of the patients from the evacuated hospitals are being transfered to the Mount Sinai Hospital right now. Reports from the site of NYU are saying the elevators aren't working and staff are carrying critical patients downstairs to the waiting fleet of ambulances:

So we're just going to put this here and trust you guys will give what you can. Also, more updates from the MTA:

11:46 p.m. Latest numbers from Gov. Cuomo have it at 1.5 million:

11:44 p.m. More bad news:

Currently trying to source current numbers. Last number we saw was over 1 million.

11:40 p.m. Things don't look great for getting power back any time soon:

11:35 p.m. The New York Times got more information on the Oyster Creek nuclear plant where the threat level was raised to Alert earlier, which is the second lowest threat level:

The water level was more than six feet above normal. At seven feet, the plant would lose the ability to cool its spent fuel pool in the normal fashion, according to Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The plant would probably have to switch to using fire hoses to pump in extra water to make up for evaporation, Mr. Sheehan said, because it could no longer pull water out of Barnegat Bay and circulate it through a heat exchanger, to cool the water in the pool.

The plant was already shut down for maintenance already. There isn't too much to worry about here.

11: 24 p.m. We have more good news from some stories we've been following. Con Edison reports there are no employees trapped in any plants. That was just a rumor. And the FDNY is on the scene at the Coney Island Hospital and there doesn't seem to be a fire or any injuries. Also, a reminder: Romney confirmed his stance to shut down FEMA as recently as this afternoon Sunday evening.

Gawker's Emma Carmichael tweeted this pretty picture of the Brooklyn Bridge:

11:16 p.m. Things are reportedly going okay with the evacuation of the NYU hospital.

11:15 p.m. This photo from Gawker's Ray Wert of a bunch of people drinking beer (?!???) and watching an SUV floating at a New York parking garage (?!??!?!?!?!) is a little nuts.

The Wall Street Journal's Jason Gay snapped this eerie pic of lower Manhattan about 20 minutes ago:

And the New York Times wasted no time getting an editorial out attacking Mitt Romney for his stance on abolishing FEMA.

11:07 p.m. Going to put up a couple tweets from people looking for help. If you're in the area, see what you can do.

11:01 p.m. This is what emergency responders have to fight through just to get... anywhere. Don't get in there way:

10:57 p.m. There are a few things we're keeping track of. The Wall Street Journal reports the waters at the Battery are now down a whole foot, which is the good news. The bad news: 19 Con Ed workers are apparently trapped at a Manhattan station, but it's unconfirmed whether it's the station where the explosion happened. Also, the FDNY are trying to make it to a Coney Island hospital to put out a reported fire there, but the flooding in Coney is making it extremely difficult. Oh, and the MTA are now confirming flooding in the tunnels under the East River.

Cory Booker is still out there being Cory Booker, though:

The New York Observer's Hunter Walker braved the storm to get pictures of the Gowanus canal flooding. In related news, the consensus on Twitter is that CNN's Ali Velshi deserves a raise and a long vacation after this is all over. He's been broadcasting live from Atlantic City all day.

This Reuters photo of the Empire State Building is inspiring, too. We'll get through this.

10:31 p.m. The NOAA charts show the surge in the Battery are starting to go down, finally. CNN's Ali Velshi reports the surge in Atlantic City is starting to go down too. We might be on the other side of this thing.

This video of the front of the building in Chelsea blowing off going viral right now, too:

Also, sorry if the time stamp at the top of the post has been weird. I'm blogging from a strange part of Canada, and it locked to my computer's time without me noticing.

10:21 p.m. Per Gov. Cuomo, there's more than a million people without power:

10:18 p.m. We cannot stress this enough. If you live in New York, do not go outside. Don't do it.

10:16 p.m. Live from the floor of a (very dry) New York Stock Exchange:

10:15 p.m. There are rumors going around that the floor of the NYSE is flooding, but multiple sources are saying that's false. Mayor Bloomberg just gave a short press conference urging everyone to stay off the roads, and offered this brief glimpse of hope:

Something something a Dark Knight reference. He also urged people to stay off the roads to let emergency workers access those in need. The NYU hospital's power went out and the backup generator didn't kick in fast enough and patients are being evacuated now.

God bless David Letterman.

10:10 p.m. Okay, a lot is happening right now. Patience is appreciated.

This AP photo of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel flooding is going viral:

And this is the Ground Zero construction site:

NYPD members already checked on the walls at the bottom of the memorial:

Thankfully, things are okay. The walls are holding and there are parts of the area that were underwater that aren't anymore.

10:00 p.m. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy is comparing this to Katrina:

NY1 is reporting 500,000 are without power:

9:54 p.m. This is a photo of a Hoboken subway station that's being passed around:

The MTA's Twitter feed is becoming increasingly impatient with doom sayers. They're denying any reports speculating how long subways will be out. They would confirm that four feet of flooding was observed in lower Manhattan.

9:48 p.m. Via John Herrman, this is a video of the explosion at the ConEd power station on 14th and Avenue D that is causing much of the power outages:

9:35 p.m. According to Alex Wagner, WNBC reports there are three confirmed deaths because of the storm right now. There are also reports coming out of the NBC headquarters at 30 Rock that window panes are flying off and down onto the street. If you're in that area, please be extra careful.

9:26 p.m. George Weld somehow caught the 14th St. transformer going out, which could be the cause of a lot of the power outages:

Buzzfeed, Gawker, and Huffpo are all down because the building that hosts their servers is flooded. They're making contingency plans. You should really be following the Times' constantly updating photo page right now. You can see half of the city in darkness.

9:17 p.m. The MTA is already denying the WSJ's report:

9:15 p.m. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the flooding in Manhattan might be enough to knock the subway system out for a week. New York City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer just passed along this picture of the waterfront:

Please be safe, everyone.

9:00 p.m. The Wall Street Journal's Ben Cohen snapped a picture of the generator lights still on at the Empire State Building. John Podhertz reports the Upper West Side still has power. The MTA has closed all tunnels and bridges in New York. The dangling crane is still there, though it seems like there's some debris coming off the unfinished building. Shamir Karkal passes along this terrifying picture of a submerged intersection at 34th and 1st Street. There is at least one FDNY station being evacuated by boat right now, while Time passes along this harrowing photo of firefighters searching for people trapped in their cars. And then there's this picture from Hoboken Girl of cars being moved around by the flooding:

8:45 p.m. OK, so, programming update. Huge portions of NYC are either without power, without internet, under water, or a combination of all of the above. Comfortably Smug just tweeted this photo of Manhattan, where it seems all power has gone out. Only the Freedom Tower is still lit:

The most shared photo (before all of Manhattan went down) was Nick Summers' instagram of a dark West Village:

7:53 p.m. The situation is starting to look pretty dire for the New York City subway system. The water continues to rise quickly at the Battery and now sits at 12.54 feet, "a solid 2 feet beyond what could possibly flood the NYC subway," according to the Weather Underground. If the water rises past the breaking point, Columbia Professor Klaus Jacob predicts that the all of the East River tunnels would be underwater within 40 minutes and it could take at least 29 to get the trains up and running again.

Meanwhile, not to scare you or anything, but here's the latest National Weather Service bulletin: "...HISTORIC AND LIFE THREATENING COASTAL FLOODING EXPECTED THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING..." (emphasis theirs)

7:42 p.m. The Gowanus Canal has continued to rise and is now making its way up the neighboring city streets in between Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.

Image via @mellowvision

Image via @hunterw who says "the situation on the Carroll Gardens side of Gowanus is bad."

7:29 p.m. ConEdison started shutting off power to residents of Lower Manhattan in what The New York Times called an "unprecedented step." As water surged to record heights -- the water at the Battery had just hit 11.25 feet, beating the previous record of 11.2 feet -- the utility company decided to shut down the equipment to keep it from getting damaged. The first wave of outages happened at 6:42, affecting 2,500 customers, and another wave happened 20 minutes later, taking out power for 4,000 customers.

At around the same time, Gawker, BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post went down. They each came back after about 15 minutes, and at least in Gawker's case, the outage was related to ConEd's cutting the power, since their servers were in the affected zone.

7:11 p.m. The National Hurricane Center has downgraded the storm from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone since "Sandy has continued to lose tropical characteristics." The National Weather Service calls it "Superstorm Sandy." Meanwhile, winds remain at 85 miles per hour, and landfall is expected around 8 p.m.

6:58 p.m. The entire facade of a tenement building on 8th Ave. between 14th St. and 15th St. collapsed, presumably due to high winds. Nobody was hurt, and nobody went missing. To the left is the residential building before the hurricane, and to the right is the building after the collapse:

Image via @DAVEKUSH

5:55 p.m. Con-Ed CEO Kevin Burke is addressing what all of New York City is concerned about: power outages. He says that Con-Ed will likely be shutting down two underground Manhattan networks: the Fulton network and the Bowling Green network which service the areas between Broadway, the East River and south of the Brooklyn Bridge. And he also says they may be shutting down power in the Brighton Beach area of New York City. He also states that if the flooding is terrible, they may be shutting steam service below 14th street.

5:48 p.m. Bloomberg has addressed the crane, and saying that the buildings in the vicinity of the crane have been evacuated. "We'd like to continue what we've experienced so far, and that's no fatalities whatsoever," says Bloomberg.

5:46 p.m. Mayor Bloomberg is speaking live now:

5:35 p.m. Chris Christie is speaking right now, and has stated that there are people stranded in Atlantic City. There's a bit of drama here as Chris Christie is calling out Atlantic City mayor Lorenzo Langford for ignoring Christie's evacuation orders and telling residents that it would be okay to stay. Christie is telling those in Atlantic City (where Sandy is about to hit) and surrounding areas that he will not be sending first responders to the city until at least daylight tomorrow and that those people are now Langford's responsibility. He says that there around 348,000 without power in New Jersey at the moment.

5:31 p.m. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are expected to speak soon.

5:26 p.m. Sandy is almost here. At around 5 p.m. the National Hurricane Center, in its latest update, said that Sandy was: "ABOUT 30 MI...45 KM ESE OF CAPE MAY NEW JERSEY" and "ABOUT 40 MI...65 KM S OF ATLANTIC CITY NEW JERSEY." Earlier this afternoon, it was reported she was traveling at about 28 m.p.h., which, if you do the math, would mean Sandy is about one episode of Friends away from landfall.

5:14 p.m. In case power goes out and you still have a charge on your smart phone, please check out Twitter's extensive and very helpful list of hurricane resources (state and federal) and their respective Twitter accounts.

5:08 p.m. Here's an update on outages from New York State from Governor Cuomo's office:

4:43 p.m. There were reports earlier concerning a crane at One World Trade Center. Here's a picture showing the damage that the construction netting at the site has suffered:

4:38 p.m. The lights are out in Princeton, New Jersey.

According to the AP's latest report there were about 95,000 in New Jersey without power. Meanwhile, in Baltimore, around 29,000 customers were without power when the Baltimore Sun checked in at 3:30 p.m. 

4:28 p.m. The NOAA has issued its 4 p.m. update and says that it is expecting Sandy to make landfall at Cape May, New Jersey "early this evening." They add: "ON THIS TRACK...THE CENTER OF SANDY IS EXPECTED TO REACH THE COAST OF EXTREME SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY OR CENTRAL DELAWARE WITHIN THE NEXT 3 TO 5 HOURS.

4:23 p.m. We have some not-so-good for those of you in lower Manhattan and really like your electricity:

4:13 p.m. Governor Cuomo in his press conference has announced that the they're expecting Sandy to make landfall between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. and announced the closure of New York City's (George Washington, Verrazano, etc.) bridges at 7 p.m. and said that the Lincoln and Midtown tunnels along with the RFK Bridge, and Triborough Bridge will stay open but could be closed if conditions call for it.

4:10 p.m. Manhattan's Midtown crane is now being discussed as a 3-alarm emergency.

4:06 p.m. Regarding the power outages in New York City, Con-Ed will apparently be making that call tonight:

3:59 p.m. Here's a picture of the boardwalk and a crazy amount of sea foam from Seaside Heights, New Jersey:

3:56 p.m. The government has announced that federal offices will remain closed on Tuesday.

3:46 p.m. Some good news. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has sent out a tweet assuring us that there is no crane issue at One World Trade Center.

The reports of the black, construction netting being torn could explain the confusion.

3:35: p.m. There's more scary news regarding Manhattan skyscrapers and their cranes. Apparently, there are reports that the crane at One World Trade Center has broken.

According to Skyscraper Page's forums, some of its users have said that the black netting has broken but the crane, for now, is secure.

3:17 p.m. According to local reports from ABC and CBS, police are evacuating buildings around the dangling crane. The scary thing about that crane is that it's some 70-stories up in the air and that means that the wind speeds are much higher up there. For some perspective: "[T]ake the NYC estimate of 75-80 mph at 8pm. That would yield 95-100 mph winds at the 31st floor of a building, and 115-120 mph winds at the 61st floor of the same building." wrote meteorologist Rob White.

3:11 p.m. And NBC News has a live stream on that very terrifying dangling crane some 1,000+ feet in the air:

3:04 p.m. Here's more on that dangling crane near Columbus Circle. Apparently, police are taking precautions and are anticipating for the crane/making preparations in case the crane comes down:

2:50 p.m: The National Hurricane Center is now stating that Sandy has picked up speed and will be making landfall earlier than expected. Experts are thinking it could make landfall closer to 6:00 p.m.

The NOAA stated in its latest bulletin that it is still expecting to hit somewhere south of southern New Jersey, and was initially forecasted to hit "late Monday night." Late Monday night obviously isn't 6:00 p.m.

2:47 p.m. Here's another frightening shot of that crane from Wald:

2:41 p.m. There's some scary news concerning the tallest (and one of the most expensive) residential building in Manhattan One57 on 57th street. Apparently, a crane at the site has buckled over in the heavy winds and is damaged and dangling. Here's the shot from Jonathan Wald, who runs the Piers Morgan show:

2:34 p.m. The spooky pictures of New York City's empty transportation hubs now include this one of the usually busy, but now shut-down Holland Tunnel:

2:19 p.m. WNYC has compiled a great Google Map on the flood conditions in Sandy's path. It updates every two minutes:

2:05 p.m. Amtrak has canceled all ACELA and Northeast Regional trains on Tuesday.

2:00 p.m. The NOAA's 2 p.m. bulletin on Hurricane Sandy is here. There aren't any massive changes to the report as Sandy's sustained winds are still under 90 mph and it's still predicted to make landfall this evening just south of the Southern New Jersey Coast. They write:

REPORTS FROM THE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT THE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS REMAIN NEAR 90 MPH...150 KM/H...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. SANDY IS EXPECTED TO TRANSITION INTO A FRONTAL OR WINTERTIME LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM LATER TODAY OR TONIGHT. HOWEVER...THIS TRANSITION WILL NOT BE ACCOMPANIED BY A WEAKENING OF THE SYSTEM

1:58 p.m. The BLS has announced that the much-anticipated October jobs report will not be delayed by the hurricane—as per the usual, they'll be here on Friday.

1:51 p.m. There are about 7,200 customers without power in Virginia right now, according to Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Dan Genest. That isn't good. "He said the outages were relatively limited so far as the storm was only beginning to increase in intensity but much worse was expected later Monday night," reports The Washington Post's Mark Berman. Genest had briefed reporters like Berman at 1:30.

1:32 p.m. The NOAA will be briefing us (and reporters) at 2 p.m. regarding Hurricane Sandy, and we'll keep you up to date on what they will be saying. Meanwhile, here's a helpful Google Crisis map showing Sandy's current path:

1:28 p.m. Let's take a minute to remind you what's closed in New York City tomorrow. According to Mayor Bloomberg's office, all New York City public schools will remained closed tomorrow and the MTA service will remain suspended until further notice. The New York Stock Exchange will remain closed tomorrow as well.

1:21 p.m. Checking in with Milford, Connecticut and it looks to be suffering the same kind of flooding that's hitting New Jersey.  Here's a picture courtesy of Buzzfeed's Andrew Kaczynski (and Reuters).

1:07 p.m.: Another Ocean City picture. New Jersey is getting slammed hard and the worst is yet to come.

1:00 p.m.: Officials, including the president, anticipate that the storm will reach it's peak around 8 or 9 p.m. tonight. Not only will the heart of the storm begin to move on land at that point—most likely somewhere around Atlantic City—but that's also the time of high tide along much of the area between there and Long Island, New York.

12:53 p.m.: President Obama did not add much in the way of new information, but urged citizens to listen to instructions from local authorities and not put them at risk by taking unnecessary chances. He also that Americans will "pull together" and clean up after the disaster.

12:45 p.m: President Obama is speaking now. Watch below:

12:01 p.m.: Here's another incredible photo via Facebook. Hurricane or no hurricane, the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at Arlington National Cemetary aren't going anywhere. Correction: the photo of guards in the pouring rain is from September. Here is, from their Facebook page, the guard on duty today as Sandy bears down.

11:57 a.m.: This photo of Hurricane Sandy was taken at 9:10 a.m. this morning by a NASA/NOAA's weather  satellite. You can see a larger version of it on Flickr.

11:45 a.m.: Rough surf of the Atlantic Ocean breaks over the dunes Monday morning, Oct. 29, 2012, in Cape May, N.J.. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

11:30 a.m.: A portion of the FDR highway on the Eastern edge of Manhattan is underwater:

11:20 a.m.: The first U.S. casualty of Hurricane Sandy may a Connecticut kayaker who went for a ride off Long Island Sunday. Two men in their twenties (who were not wearing life jackets) were thrown from their kayaks in rough waters. One man was rescued, but the search was called off for the other on Sunday afternoon to focus on preparations for the storm.

11:11 a.m.: Add Ocean City, New Jersey, to the list of communities devastated by flooding. And Sandy has not even arrived on shore yet.

11:06 a.m.: The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn—which is actually a SuperFund site, due to decades of toxic chemical and sewage runoff—is also reaching flood stage and threatening to flood several neighborhoods. (The surround neighborhoods are filled with journalists and bloggers, who are documenting the water rise as well.)

10:40 a.m.: There is now severe flooding in throughout all of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Most of the streets are now under several feet of water.

10:33 a.m.: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo just announced that the Holland and Brooklyn Battery Tunnels (two major arteries out of New York City), will close at 2 p.m. The Bridges will close if winds reach 60 m.p.h., which they almost certainly will later this evening. Boston has also announced that their transit system will shut down at 2 p.m.

10:09 a.m.: The WSJ says Sandy is now the "most intense hurricane ever north of North Carolina" (in terms of barometric pressure) in history.

10:03 a.m.: Update on the HMS Bounty: 14 of the people who abandoned the ship have been rescued, but two others are still missing and maybe in the water. (The initial report of 17 people appears to be incorrect.) The 180-foot, three-mast sailing ship completely sank about 90-miles off of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

9:50 a.m.: Two new images of piers taking a beating along the coast. The first is in Ocean City, Maryland. The second (via tattooed_prez on Instagram) is another buckled boardwalk in Atlantic City.

9:20 a.m.: The Hudson River is now up over its banks on the West side of New York City.

9:06 a.m.: More flooding in New York city. Here's a Google map of the potential storm surge, and a photo from the Red Hook neighborhood (on the leading edge of the city shore.)

8:58 a.m.: Further inland, in the Mountains of West Virginia, Hurricane Sandy means snow:

8:42 a.m.: The  Battery Park esplanade in Lower Manhattan is also underwater now. As is the Belt Parkway in southern Brooklyn. It is near high tide in New York.

8:27 a.m.: A scary image out of Atlantic City. A huge chunk of the boardwalk has broken free and is now floating down the street.

8:00 a.m.: The National Hurricane Center has issued it's 8:00 a.m. storm advisory, but there are no changes to the storm situation. Wind speeds and expected path remain unchanged.

7:43 a.m.: Flooding is already begining in low-lying areas of New York:

A jet skier takes advantage of building surf from approaching Hurricane Sandy at Coney Island beach in New York Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Areas along the Northeast Coast were seeing the effects of the hurricane and preparing for a possible flooding storm surge. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

7:23 a.m.: Here are some links to power outages maps that will show you what areas are being affected: PEPCO in the Washington, DC area. ConEdison in New York. PECO in Philadelphia.

7:05 a.m.: The Coast Guard has just launched a rescue operation off the coast of North Carolina, as 17 people have abandoned a tall-ship (which is a replica of the famous HMS Bounty) that lost power and was taking on water. The crew and passengers have entered lifeboats and the Coast Guard is figuring out how to get to them.

7:00 a.m.: Here are some updates on what's happening this morning.

Photo taken this morning from The New York Times dedicated storm cam.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.