Superstorm Sandy slams into US East coast

Sandy made landfall on Monday night, hurling a surge of seawater on New York City with wind and rain that sent water sloshing into Manhattan from three sides but began dying down within hours.

Much of New York was plunged into darkness on Monday by a superstorm that overflowed the city's historic waterfront, flooded the financial district and subway tunnels and cut power to nearly a million people.

A swan makes its way down a flooded street in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy in Lindenhurst, New York.

Image: AP

Kim Johnson looks over the destruction near her seaside apartment in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Image: AP

Water reaches street level at the West Street entrance to the Battery Park Underpass in New York.

Image: AP

A boat lies toppled between two flooded houses in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy in Lindenhurst, New York.

Image: AP

People leave the area before the next high tide, walking on beach sand deposited overnight in the road from the last high tide and superstorm Sandy in Milford, Connecticut.

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A fallen tree branch sits on a car blocking East 74th Street between Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Image: AP

New York Police officers turn back traffic entering the Long Island City section in the Queens borough of New York.

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Viewers react as waves crash against a seawall near homes in Scituate, Massachusetts.

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Waters flood Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright, New Jersey.

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The New York City skyline and Hudson River are seen from Hoboken, New Jersey as Hurricane Sandy approaches.

Image: AP

People and a dog ride on a National Guard vehicle after after being rescued from the Metropolitan Trailer Park in Moonachie, New Jersey in the wake of superstorm Sandy.

Image: AP

Lisa Famularo and her husband, Michael Green, prepare to get slammed by a large wave while taking pictures of heavy surf in the Atlantic Ocean during the early stages of Hurricane Sandy in Kennebunk, Maine.

Image: AP

Beachgoers walk in the wind and rain as waves generated by Superstorm Sandy crash into Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina, as the storm churns up the east coast.

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The number 1 subway train station is blocked by sandbags at Battery Park in New York in preparation for a possible storm surge as Superstorm Sandy approaches the East Coast.

Image: AP

One World Trade Center, peeks through light rain as water from the Hudson River creeps up on Pier A Park with the expected arrival of Superstorm Sandy in Hoboken, N.J.

Image: AP

Sea foam washes over the beach as Superstorm Sandy bears down on the East Coast in Ocean City, Delaware.

Image: AP

Alix Brignol of New York takes a picture as water washes over the sea wall near high tide at Battery Park in New York as Superstorm Sandy approaches.

Image: AP

Water from Hurricane Sandy floods streets on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in Seaford, New York. Forecasters said the hurricane could blow ashore Monday night or early Tuesday along the New Jersey coast, then cut across into Pennsylvania and travel up through New York State

Image: AP

A pedestrian in a plastic poncho walks through a parking lot in gusty winds and rain from Hurricane Sandy in Upper Darby, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Image: REUTERS

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange is empty of traders in New York. All major U.S. stock and options exchanges will remain closed on Monday with Hurricane Sandy nearing landfall on the East Coast. Trading has rarely stopped for weather before.

Image : AP

An information board showing a cancelled flight to New York, due to the emergence of Hurricane Sandy, at London Heathrow Airport, England.

Image : AP

About 50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada are in the path of the nearly 1,000-mile-wide (1,600-km-wide) storm, which forecasters said could be the largest to hit the mainland in U.S. history.

Image: AP

Waves crash over the bow of a tug boat as it passes near the Statue of Liberty in New York on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012 as rough water as the result of Hurricane Sandy churned the waters of New York Harbor.

Waves wash over the sea wall near high tide at Battery Park in New York as Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast. Hurricane Sandy continued on its path Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds and soaking rain.

Image: AP

New York city's subways and bus lines shut down on Sunday night and airlines also started bringing their operations to a halt with thousands of flights canceled.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a mandatory evacuation for about 375,000 people in seafront zones that could be hit by a record storm surge.

Image: AFP

Long lines formed at supermarkets in New York to get water, bread, fresh food, batteries and anything that could help ride out the storm heading for the northeast United States.

Image: NDTV

Schools and other buildings have opened up as emergency shelters. Many inhabitants said they were going to ignore the evacuation order, however.

Image: AFP Families are seen through the door leading to the gymnasium of Cape Henlopen High School which is being used as a Red Cross shelter in Lewes, Delaware.

The fire department of New York carry out rescue operations.

The facade of this four-storey residential building collapsed in Manhattan, New York.

The fire department of New York respond to the building collapse. No one was injured although there were people inside the building when the facade fell.

Image: AFP

The superstorm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes, stores and office buildings in United States.

A man watches the Indian River rise as he stands under his home in Sussex, Delware.

Image: AP

Superstorm Sandy has forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets and massive evacuation of residents living in coastal areas.

"My main message to everybody involved is that we have to take this seriously," US President Barack Obama said. He urged people to "listen to your local officials."

Image: AP

People fill bags with sand in downtown Washington, DC, ahead of Superstorm Sandy's landfall as flooding was expected throughout parts of the US capital.

Image: AFP

US Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate warned that the "time for preparing and talking is about over," as Superstorm Sandy made its way up the Atlantic on a collision course with two other weather systems that could turn it into one of the most fearsome storms on record in the U.S.

Because of its size and scale, the storm is being called "Frankenstorm", "Hell-oween", "Perfect Storm II".

Image: AFP

Big cities in US from Washington to Boston braced for the onslaught of a superstorm that could menace 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the U.S., with forecasters warning New York could be in particular peril.

Image: AFP/ Naval Research Laboratory Satellite image showing the eye of Hurricane Sandy as it churns just off the eastern coast of the US.

Next: Photos shared by Twitter users

@ronniejoice: All of NYC now in darkness except for the Empire State Building.

@GavBrett: Crazy picture of #Sandy surge flooding Brooklyn's banks.

@richwilliamssky

@57UN: Lovely picture of as Dog being rescued from hurricane.

@Tim_Eastman: The 148th st 3 station being pumped out

@sawetachai: #hurricane #sandy in #chicago #iPOst http://yfrog.com/j21pqezj

@bananarams: Image of ambulances waiting at NYU medical center

@LukeKerrDineen: Water literally chest high on east side highway at 53 and sutton

@luis_gcb: NY we love you pic.twitter.com/mxzjZQrg

@mostlylisa: Power outages in lower Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy.

@maadhadu: View from the tourism district in Atlantic City.

Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline and hurled a record-breaking 13-foot surge of seawater at New York City on Monday, roaring ashore after washing away part of the Atlantic City boardwalk and putting the presidential campaign on hold.

Waves crash over Winthrop Shore Drive as Hurricane Sandy comes up the coast in Winthrop, Massachusetts.

Image: AFP

Water rushes into Carey tunnel in New York.

Image: AP

Inflatable boats travel along 14th street towards the East River on a rescue mission in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in New York.

Image: AP

A street collapses. #sandy

Image: David Blaine ?@davidblaine

A resident pulls a woman in a canoe down 6th Street as high tide, rain and winds flood local streets on October 29, 2012 in Lindenhurst, New York.

Image- AFP

The HMS Bounty, a 180-foot sailboat, submerged in the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy. The Coast Guard rescued 14 of the 16 crew members by helicopter. Hours later, rescuers found one of the missing crew members, but she was unresponsive. They are still searching for the captain.

Image: AP (This photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows)

Lower Manhattan goes dark during Superstorm Sandy, as seen from the Brooklyn Heights promenade in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

(Image: AP)

An historic ferry boat named the Binghamton is swamped by the waves on the Hudson River in Edgewater, New Jersey.

Two people take shelter in the doorway of a closed store during heavy rain and winds ahead of Superstorm Sandy's landfall in downtown Philadelphia.

Trees bend in the wind and driving rain in downtown Philadelphia ahead of superstorm Sandy's landfall.

A construction crane atop a luxury high-rise dangles precariously over the streets after collapsing in high winds from Superstorm Sandy.

Water reaches the street level of the Battery Park Underpass on Tuesday in New York.

Image: AP

Damage caused by a fire at Breezy Point is shown in New York. A fire department spokesman says more than 190 firefighters are at the blaze in the Breezy Point section. Fire officials say the blaze was reported around 11 pm on Monday in an area flooded by the superstorm that began sweeping through earlier.

Image: AP

A surveillance camera captures the PATH station in Hoboken, New Jersey, as it is flooded. The photo was provided by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Image: AP

A fire burns at least two dozen homes in a flooded neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens on Tuesday on Oct. 30, 2012.

Image: AP

Sea water floods the Ground Zero construction site in New York.

Image: AP