Key developments surrounding Hurricane Sandy

Washington: Here are the key developments as Sandy, a monster storm of unprecedented size, barrels into the US East Coast:

- The center of Sandy makes landfall along the coast of southern New Jersey near Atlantic City at around 0000 GMT Tuesday.

- Shortly before landfall, the superstorm technically becomes Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy as it collides with a cold front coming down from Canada.

- The storm retains hurricane strength with maximum sustained winds of up to 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour) and experts warn it is no less deadly.

- Hundreds of thousands of residents of low-lying coastal areas flee to higher ground as it crashes ashore across a swathe of the Eastern Seaboard with storm surges in New York harbor, heavy snows in West Virginia and North Carolina, and heavy winds and driving rain from Washington to Boston.

Advertisement

- Cities along the coast from Boston and New York down to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington come grinding to a halt with trains, buses and subway services suspended, schools shut and workers staying home.

- New York closes road tunnels as record storm surges of up to 11 feet (3.5 meters) due to swamp Battery Park and threaten to flood parts of Lower Manhattan.

Advertisement

- A replica of the HMS Bounty that starred in Hollywood movies sinks in towering waves off North Carolina. The Coast Guard rescues 14 crew but another is found "unresponsive" and the captain is still missing.

- State-by-state tallies by US media show millions already without power.

Advertisement

- Areas of Ocean City, Maryland and Long Island, New York are the first to see extensive coastal flooding as wooden boats carrying stranded residents to safety.

- The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, the world's biggest financial markets, suspend trading for a weather event for the first time since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.