The U.S east coast is experiencing severe flooding and hurricane winds as ‘super-storm’ Sandy reached cities including New York, Boston, Washington and Philadelphia. Last night saw rising flood water enter the subway system in New York in Lower Manhattan, with President Obama declaring a ”major disaster” in New York State.
New York University Hospital has been evacuated, an estimated 1 million have been moved from their homes. An estimated 5 million people across five states are without electricity. So far it is estimated that Sandy has claimed seventeen lives across the U.S and Canada, including the captain of a replica of HMS Bounty off the coast of North Carolina.
The storm reached land in New Jersey, close to Atlantic City at around 8pm local time last night and whilst Sandy lost her hurricane status this morning she is still bringing hurricane strength winds. With huge damage to buildings, homes, transport disruption and strain on the emergency services the expected cost of Sandy to the US economy stands at between 10-20 billion dollars.
