NEW YORK (AP) — A late-season hurricane is bearing down on the East Coast. It threatens to inundate New York with an 11-foot wall of water and has sent coastal residents fleeing for higher ground and shuttered major financial markets.
Hurricane Sandy began veering as predicted early Monday on a path that would take it over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. It's expected to collide with two other weather systems, creating the potential for havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.
Many workers planned to stay home as transit systems shut down under the threat of flooding that could inundate tracks and tunnels. Schools and airports closed, and authorities warned that the time for evacuation was running out or already past.
The center of the wide storm was positioned to come ashore Monday night in New Jersey.
Louis Uccellini is environmental prediction chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He says "this is the worst-case scenario."