East Coast hammered, shut down

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John Minchillo / The Associated Press Seawater floods the Ground Zero construction site in Manhattan Monday.

NEW YORK -- Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline and hurled a record-breaking four-meter surge of seawater at New York City on Monday, roaring ashore and putting the presidential campaign on hold a week before election day. At least 13 deaths were blamed on the storm.

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John Minchillo / The Associated Press The facade of a four-storey building in Manhattan lies on the sidewalk and a parked car Monday. (CP)

Sandy knocked out power to at least 5.7 million people across the U.S. East, and New York's main utility said large sections of Manhattan had been plunged into darkness by the storm, with 250,000 customers without power as water pressed into the island from three sides, flooding rail yards, subway tracks, tunnels and roads.

Just before its centre reached land, the storm was stripped of hurricane status, but the distinction was purely technical, based on its shape and internal temperature. It still packed hurricane-force wind, and forecasters were careful to say it remained every bit as dangerous to the 50 million people in its path.

The full extent of the storm's damage across the region was unclear, and unlikely to become known until this morning. Heavy rain and further flooding remain major threats over the next couple of days as the storm makes its way into Pennsylvania and up into New York State. Near midnight, the centre of the storm was just outside Philadelphia, and its winds were down to 120 kph, just barely hurricane strength.

The National Hurricane Center announced earlier in the evening that Sandy had come ashore near Atlantic City. It smacked the boarded-up big cities of the Northeast corridor, from Washington and Baltimore to Philadelphia, New York and Boston, with stinging rain and gusts of more than 135 kph. The sea surged a record of nearly four metres at the foot of Manhattan, flooding the financial district and subway tunnels.

The 13 deaths were reported in New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Some of the victims were killed by falling trees. Police in Toronto said a woman was killed by a falling sign as high winds closed in on Canada's largest city.

As it made its way toward land, it converged with a cold-weather system that turned into a fearsome superstorm, a monstrous hybrid consisting not only of rain and high wind but of snow. Forecasters warned of six-metre waves bashing into the Chicago lakefront and up to one metre of snow in West Virginia.

Storm damage was projected at $10 billion to $20 billion, meaning it could prove to be one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney suspended their campaigning with just over a week to go before the country votes.

At the White House, Obama made a direct appeal to those in harm's way: "Please listen to what your state and local officials are saying. When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. Don't delay, don't pause, don't question the instructions that are being given, because this is a powerful storm."

The storm washed away a section of the Atlantic City Boardwalk in New Jersey. Water was splashing over the seawalls at the southern tip of Manhattan.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said late Monday the worst of the rain had passed for the city, and that the high tide that sent water sloshing into Manhattan from three sides was receding. Still, authorities also feared the surge of seawater would damage the underground electrical and communications lines in lower Manhattan that are vital to the nation's financial centre.

Water began pooling in rail yards and on highways near the Hudson River waterfront on Manhattan's far west side. On coastal Long Island, floodwaters swamped cars, downed trees and put neighbourhoods under water as beachfronts and fishing villages bore the brunt of the storm. A police car was lost rescuing 14 people from the popular resort Fire Island.

In downtown Manhattan, rescue workers floated bright orange rafts on flooded streets, while police officers with loudspeakers told people to go home.

"Now it's really turning into something," said Brian Damianakes, taking shelter in a bank vestibule and watching a trash can blow down the street in Battery Park.

A construction crane atop a luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan collapsed in high winds and dangled precariously. Residents in surrounding buildings were ordered to move to lower floors and the streets below were cleared, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

The facade of a four-story Manhattan building in the Chelsea neighbourhood crumbled and collapsed suddenly, leaving the lights, couches, cabinets and desks inside visible from the street. No one was hurt, although some of the falling debris hit a car.

Not only was the New York subway shut down, but the Holland Tunnel connecting New York to New Jersey was closed, as was a tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and several other spans were closed because of high winds.

In the waning days of his re-election bid, Obama scrapped two days of campaigning and retreated from the trail. He hunkered down at the White House to oversee the government's response to the superstorm barrelling across the Eastern U.S. -- and to project presidential leadership.

"The election will take care of itself next week," Obama said from the White House after flying back to Washington from Florida.

Obama aides insisted it was not only the right decision, but also an easy one. Even with Obama locked in a tight race with Romney, the president would have risked appearing to put politics over the public's safety had he pressed on with his plans to campaign. And that could have been enough to turn off some still-persuadable voters at a critical juncture in the campaign.

Now Obama has the opportunity -- and the responsibility -- to show the type of command in a crisis that only the president can offer. While Romney can make symbolic gestures, like cancelling most of his own campaign events Monday and today, he doesn't have the power to provide tangible assistance.

Meanwhile, northerly winds were increasing over southern Ontario Monday night, with some areas reporting gusts above 80 km/h which were expected to get stronger. Southwestern Nova Scotia was also being whipped by gusty winds.

-- The Associated Press

Locals in NYC watch

from indoor safety

WINNIPEGGERS braced Monday for the fury of hurricane Sandy from inside the concrete canyons of Manhattan.

"We're good Manitobans. We're doing as we're told and we're staying put," Karen Bryk quipped in the face of the crisis.

In midtown Manhattan, at a high-end tourist hotel, Bryk and her friends scrawled jokes on drink coasters while a bartender stirred up "hurricane" cocktails to buck up frightened tourists.

"It feels like New Year's and we are waiting for the ball to drop," Bryk wrote in an email.

Bryk, the province's deputy protocol chief, is in the Big Apple with her friends, Carol Henrick and Juliette Hum. Bryk offered to help hotel staff with crisis management.

Like everyone else, they'd filled the bathtub with water, brought in food from nearby delis and made nests of blankets and pillows inside a closet -- in case debris broke through the glass panes of their hotel room's two windows.

She said there's no escaping the storm, with airports, bus stations and train stations closed. Their Sunday-afternoon flight was among hundreds cancelled.

Paul Scurfield and his wife and two little girls were planning on cooking up a storm in their lower Manhattan condo, a brick fort of a building. "It probably would withstand a bomb blast," said the son of the late Manitoba judge, John Scurfield.

"We're having guests from across the hall for dinner. It's all good. We've got plenty of food and wine," added the young dad, who's a broker with an investment bank.

Near the storied Museum of Natural History, Stephanie Plaitin stuck her head out the window as the wind clocked at 120 kilometres per hour to take a photo.

The photo showed her grinning, hair sideways like a whipcord, rain puckered on the camera lens.

A manager with one Manhattan dance company and events planner with another one, the former Winnipegger said she'd gotten two Winnipeg dancers, Alexandra Elliot and Ian Mozdzen, to safe high ground in Brooklyn.

She stocked up on food and water at home. "I'm in regular touch through Skype and FB and anyone who's been evacuated seems safe.

"I feel a little anxious because people panic and panicking is my biggest concern. I feel confident for myself, with my flood-battling skills from Winnipeg," Plaitin said.

-- Alexandra Paul