Sunday, October 28, 2012

BLOOMBERG ORDERS PARTIAL NYC EVACUATION AHEAD OF HURRICANE SANDY, 6- TO 11- FOOT STORM SURGE PREDICTED


Posted on October 28, 2012 at 12:44pm 

by Madeleine Morgenstern



A man hurries to prepare a restaurant from the high winds of approaching Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 28, 2012 in Ocean City, N.J. New Jersey is expected to be hit hard by approaching storm sometime on Monday, bringing heavy winds and floodwaters. (Getty Images)


New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Sunday ordered mandatory evacuations of parts of lower Manhattan and other low-lying areas in the city as the Northeast braced for Hurricane Sandy.

Bloomberg also announced the city’s 1.1 million-student public school system would be closed Monday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had already ordered all bus, subway and commuter train service be halted at 7 p.m. Sunday.

“If you don’t evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you,” Bloomberg said during a news conference Sunday morning. “This is a serious and dangerous storm.”

Rainfall was expected to start late Sunday or early Monday in New York as Sandy headed north from the Caribbean, where it left more than five dozen people dead. It was expected to turn left toward the mid-Atlantic coast and come ashore late Monday or early Tuesday, most likely in New Jersey, and collide with a wintry storm coming from the west and a cold front from the Arctic to create a rare hybrid storm.


A woman grabs the few remaining water bottles from the shelves at the Waldbaums grocery store as Hurricane Sandy approaches on Oct. 28, 2012 in Long Beach, New York. (Getty Images)


Bloomberg said forecasters had revised their initial predictions upward and were expecting a six- to 11-foot storm surge to affect low-lying areas of New York City. The worst of the storm was expected to come Monday night.

“I don’t want anybody to go to bed tonight thinking they can spend some time worrying” tomorrow, Bloomberg said. “We’ve got to take some preparations today and we anticipate the surge will hit a lot of low-lying areas and the possibility of flooding will continue to Tuesday afternoon.”

The National Weather Service said Sunday morning that Sandy was expected to bring “life-threatening” storm surge flooding to the mid-Atlantic coast, including along the Long Island Sound and New York Harbor. Sandy was expected to have near-hurricane-force winds of 75 mph when it made landfall.



Construction workers carry boards of wood to cover air vents that could cause the New York City subway system to flood in preparation for Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 28, 2012 in New York. (Getty Images)


This post will be updated.

​The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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