Sandy Brings Hurricane-Force Gusts to U.S. East Coast

Sandy, now a powerful wintry storm, made landfall along the coast of southern New Jersey, battering New York with hurricane-force wind gusts.

The system came ashore near Atlantic City, New Jersey, at 8 p.m. New York time, and by 9 p.m. the National Hurricane Center said it was receiving reports of hurricane-force wind gusts over Long Island and the New York metropolitan areas. Sandy is no longer a hurricane because it’s drawing energy from temperature differences and not the ocean, making the transition to a superstorm that may push a wall of water ashore in the Northeast and lash the East with wind, rain and snow.

• Special Report: Hurricane Sandy

As of 9 p.m. Eastern time, Sandy was 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Atlantic City, moving west-northwest at 21 miles per hour with top sustained winds of 80 mph. It’s forecast to turn north by tomorrow and cross through Pennsylvania to reach New York on Oct. 31, the center said.

Rains are soaking the mid-Atlantic states, 3 feet (0.9 meters) of snow may fall in the Appalachians and a record- breaking storm surge may wash over Manhattan’s Battery Park.

Sandy’s winds had stretched to about 1,100 miles from end to end earlier today, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was the largest tropical system on record, forecasters said. A wind gust to 79 mph was reported at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, and another to 90 mph was reported at Islip, New York, the center said in the 9 p.m. Eastern time advisory.

Storm Tides

Tides along the coast will be near their peak when the storm goes ashore, which may mean record amounts of water washing onto land, according to Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“These may be the highest storm tides ever recorded going back a century,” Masters said by telephone. “We’re looking, potentially, at a very expensive disaster for New York City.”

Sandy is so large that the storm will be felt along the East Coast from Maine to Virginia, Masters said.

“The timing certainly matters, but the location isn’t that important because some of the strongest winds are quite a ways removed from the center,” Masters said. “It’s a superstorm, it’s aptly named in terms of its size, its low central pressure, the weird angle it’s taking, the lateness of the season.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net; Lynn Doan in San Francisco at ldoan6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net

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Hurricane Sandy May Push Record Storm Surge Into Manhattan

Peter Foley/Bloomberg

Metropolitan Transit Authority workers lay down plywood over subway grates at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to prevent flooding in New York.

Metropolitan Transit Authority workers lay down plywood over subway grates at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to prevent flooding in New York. Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg

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This footage was shot on the afternoon of October 28. Hurricane Sandy has hit Rodanthe in North Carolina knocking over a house in the process. The footage was shot by Trevor Murchie.

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Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Peter Cook reports on the response FEMA's preparations for Hurricane Sandy and how the storm is impacting the presidential campaign and the daily business of the federal government. he speaks on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg Surveillance."

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Oct. 29 Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Michael McKee takes a macro-economic look at hurricane Sandy's potential damage. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s "Bloomberg Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)

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Oct. 29 Bloomberg) -- Authorities closed all commuter hubs in New York City in preparation for Hurricane Sandy, leaving empty hallways that normally shuttle millions of passengers every day. Photos courtesy Metropolitan Transit Authority.

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Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- New York and New Jersey prepare and respond to Hurricane Sandy, the Atlantic Ocean’s biggest-ever tropical storm. The storm, 900 miles wide, prompted warnings of life-threatening surges from Virginia to Massachusetts, emptied the streets of the nation’s largest cities, paralyzed mass-transit systems and lashed the East Coast with gales, rain and even snow. It shut the federal government and state administrations, and prevented U.S. stock markets from opening for two days. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Nicholas Pinardo, a resident of Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, who has two boats at the Lighthouse Pointe Marina in Wildwood, New Jersey, talks with Bloomberg's Terrence Dopp about the outlook for Hurricane Sandy's arrival and the possibility the water will rise higher than the docks' pilings. (Source: Bloomberg)