Uploaded October 2012 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Could this happen again, but with Hurricane Sandy!?
Thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes
Continue reading the main story
Hurricane Sandy
Latest updates Live
Bounty abandoned
Map and satellite images
Mardell: Growing threat
Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on America's most densely populated region, with storm surges and flooding forecast up and down the East Coast.
Thousands have been ordered to evacuate New York City and New Jersey. The storm could affect 50 million people.
Public transport in Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York is suspended and more than 7,000 flights grounded.
Forecasters fear Sandy will become a super-storm when it collides with cold weather fronts from the west and north.
It also coincides with a full moon, which is bringing higher tides.
Slow-moving storm
Sandy has already killed 60 people after sweeping through the Caribbean in the past week.
The US presidential campaign has been disrupted, eight days ahead of election day on 6 November. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq was suspended.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
Laura Trevelyan
BBC News, New York
At Battery Park City on the southern tip of Manhattan, the water is already lapping over my boots. It's only mid-morning, hours before Hurricane Sandy is due to make landfall, and the ocean is swelling.
Tonight with the storm surge the water levels are expected to rise, though already it seems to me the water is as high as it was during Hurricane Irene last year. The city is eerily quiet. The Nasdaq sign at Times Square was blank - even the stock exchange isn't trading.
The subways are shut, grocery stores have signs up saying they've already run out of food. The city is braced for what could be the worst storm in a generation. At this point the preparations have been made - sandbags are everywhere in lower Manhattan. All anyone can do is wait, anxiously.
At 11:00 EDT (15:00 GMT), Sandy was churning about 260 miles (415km) south-east of New York City, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The storm had strengthened from the morning, with maximum sustained winds clocked at 90mph with higher gusts.
Hurricane force winds extended for 175 miles and tropical storm force winds for 485 miles, the NHC added.
The vast hurricane, spanning about 520 miles, is moving slowly north-west and could linger over as many as 12 states for 24-36 hours, bringing up to 10in (25cm) of rain, 24in of snow, extreme storm surges and power cuts.
President Barack Obama has signed eight emergency declarations: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland and District of Columbia.
At least 14 out of 16 people on board a replica of HMS Bounty - built for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty - have been rescued, the US Coast Guard says.
They were plucked from two life rafts off the coast of North Carolina after abandoning ship. The Coast Guard is searching for the missing crew members.
In Ocean City, Maryland, a tourist pier was destroyed overnight.
The eye of the storm is expected to move across the coast of mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, the NHC said.
Due to hit the US East Coast just before Halloween, it has been dubbed Frankenstorm.
Amtrak has suspended passenger train services across the north-east and air travel has been badly hit, with some 7,500 flights cancelled. find out more here bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20121811
Could this happen again, but with Hurricane Sandy!?
Thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes
Continue reading the main story
Hurricane Sandy
Latest updates Live
Bounty abandoned
Map and satellite images
Mardell: Growing threat
Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on America's most densely populated region, with storm surges and flooding forecast up and down the East Coast.
Thousands have been ordered to evacuate New York City and New Jersey. The storm could affect 50 million people.
Public transport in Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York is suspended and more than 7,000 flights grounded.
Forecasters fear Sandy will become a super-storm when it collides with cold weather fronts from the west and north.
It also coincides with a full moon, which is bringing higher tides.
Slow-moving storm
Sandy has already killed 60 people after sweeping through the Caribbean in the past week.
The US presidential campaign has been disrupted, eight days ahead of election day on 6 November. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq was suspended.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
Laura Trevelyan
BBC News, New York
At Battery Park City on the southern tip of Manhattan, the water is already lapping over my boots. It's only mid-morning, hours before Hurricane Sandy is due to make landfall, and the ocean is swelling.
Tonight with the storm surge the water levels are expected to rise, though already it seems to me the water is as high as it was during Hurricane Irene last year. The city is eerily quiet. The Nasdaq sign at Times Square was blank - even the stock exchange isn't trading.
The subways are shut, grocery stores have signs up saying they've already run out of food. The city is braced for what could be the worst storm in a generation. At this point the preparations have been made - sandbags are everywhere in lower Manhattan. All anyone can do is wait, anxiously.
At 11:00 EDT (15:00 GMT), Sandy was churning about 260 miles (415km) south-east of New York City, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The storm had strengthened from the morning, with maximum sustained winds clocked at 90mph with higher gusts.
Hurricane force winds extended for 175 miles and tropical storm force winds for 485 miles, the NHC added.
The vast hurricane, spanning about 520 miles, is moving slowly north-west and could linger over as many as 12 states for 24-36 hours, bringing up to 10in (25cm) of rain, 24in of snow, extreme storm surges and power cuts.
President Barack Obama has signed eight emergency declarations: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland and District of Columbia.
At least 14 out of 16 people on board a replica of HMS Bounty - built for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty - have been rescued, the US Coast Guard says.
They were plucked from two life rafts off the coast of North Carolina after abandoning ship. The Coast Guard is searching for the missing crew members.
In Ocean City, Maryland, a tourist pier was destroyed overnight.
The eye of the storm is expected to move across the coast of mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, the NHC said.
Due to hit the US East Coast just before Halloween, it has been dubbed Frankenstorm.
Amtrak has suspended passenger train services across the north-east and air travel has been badly hit, with some 7,500 flights cancelled. find out more here bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20121811
