Are we nearer to 21 Dec 2012??
Does our "Pahala" can bring us to heaven.
All this happen because of our wrong doing.
Aisbergh melting, forest gone, building build.
Nature now being cruel to us.
As an human being, we should use our brain to help nature.
| Lets doing 3R. Think Green |
(Reuters) - Hurricane Sandy, a mammoth storm
menacing the East Coast, took aim at the most densely populated U.S. region on
Monday, forcing hundreds of thousands to seek higher ground, halting public
transport and closing schools, businesses and government departments.
| Hurracane in New York port |
About 50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to
Canada were in the path of the storm, which forecasters say could be the
largest ever to hit the U.S. mainland. It is expected to topple trees, damage
buildings and cause widespread power outages over the next few days.
Sandy, which killed 66 people in the Caribbean and
has brought lashing rains to coastal areas and snow at higher elevations, will
cause extensive flooding when it moves inland, forecasters said.
The websites of forecasting services indicated
early Monday the storm will strike the New Jersey shore near Atlantic City
Monday night. While Sandy does not pack the punch of Hurricane Katrina, which
devastated New Orleans in 2005, its winds stretch some 520 miles (835 km) from its
eye, meteorologists said.
| Sandy Hurracane |
New York and other cities and towns closed their
transit systems and schools and ordered mass evacuations from low-lying areas
ahead of a storm surge that could reach as high as 11 feet (3.4 meters). All
U.S. stock markets will be closed on Monday and possibly Tuesday, the operator
of the New York Stock Exchange said late on Sunday, reversing an earlier plan
that would have kept electronic trading going on Monday.
Sandy forced President Barack Obama and Republican
challenger Mitt Romney to cancel some campaign stops and fuelled fears that it
could disrupt early voting - encouraged by the candidates this year more than
ever - before the November 6 election. The United Nations, Broadway theatres,
New Jersey casinos, schools up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and myriad
corporate events are also being shut down.
'DON'T BE STUPID'
Officials ordered people in coastal towns and
low-lying areas to evacuate, often telling them they would put emergency
workers' lives at risk if they stayed. "Don't be stupid, get out, and go
to higher, safer ground," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told a news
conference.
| Worried??? |
Forecasters said Sandy was a rare, hybrid
"super storm" created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around
a tropical storm, possibly causing up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in some
areas, as well as up to 3 feet (90 cm) of snowfall in the Appalachian Mountains
from West Virginia to Kentucky.
At 2 a.m. (0600 GMT), the National Hurricane Center
said Sandy was centred about 425 miles (685 km) south southeast of New York
City. The storm was turning toward the coast and moving at 14 mph (22 kph) and
would bring a "life-threatening" surge, hurricane-force winds and
heavy snows in the Appalachian mountains. Worried residents in the hurricane's
path packed stores, searching for generators, flashlights, batteries, food and
other supplies in anticipation of power outages. Nearly 284,000 residential
properties valued at $88 billion are at risk for damage, risk analysts at
CoreLogic said.
| I will be scared to look at this pic |
Transportation is grinding to a halt, with airlines
cancelling flights, bridges and tunnels closing, and Amtrak scrapping nearly
all of its passenger rail service on the East Coast. The federal government
told non-emergency workers in Washington D.C. to stay home.
"This is a serious and big storm," Obama
said after a briefing at the federal government's storm response center in
Washington. "We don't yet know where it's going to hit, where we're going
to see the biggest impacts.
Utilities from the Carolinas to Maine reported late
Sunday that a combined 14,000 customers were already without power. The
second-largest oil refinery on the East Coast, Phillips 66's 238,000 barrel per
day (bpd) Bayway plant in Linden, New Jersey, was shutting down and three other
plants cut output as the storm affected operations at two-thirds of the
region's plants.
Oil prices slipped on Monday, with Brent near $109
a barrel. "With refineries cutting runs, we're likely to see a build-up in
crude stocks which could be driving bearish prices at the moment," said
Michael Creed, an economist at National Australia Bank in Melbourne.
EVACUATION ORDERS
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the
evacuation of some 375,000 people from low-lying areas of the city, from
upscale parts of lower Manhattan to waterfront housing projects in the outer
boroughs. While Sandy's 75 mph (120 kph) winds were not overwhelming for a
hurricane, its exceptional size means the winds will last as long as two days,
bringing down trees and damaging buildings.
"This is not a typical storm," said
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. "It could very well be historic in
nature and in scope, and in magnitude because of the widespread anticipated
power outages, and the potential major wind damage." Even with all the
warnings, some people tried to carry on with their plans.
"I just don't buy into the hype," said
Kate Sullivan, a 40-year-old computer specialist from Alexandria, Virginia, who
was headed to Baltimore-Washington International airport for a planned flight
to Los Angeles. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up in LA by the end of
the night."
(Additional reporting by Edith Honan, Caroline
Humer, Paul Thomasch and Janet McGurty in New York, Barbara Goldberg in New
Jersey, Gene Cherry in North Carolina, Dave Warner in Philadelphia, Tom Hals in
Milford, Delaware, Mary Ellen Clark and Ebong Udoma in Connecticut, Matt
Spetalnick in Washington. Writing by Philip Barbara; Editing by John
Stonestreet)
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