Sandy gains power on way to northeast threatening 50 million people

Thousands of flights have been canceled and widespread evacuation orders have been made from Washington D.C. to Boston as Hurricane Sandy nears the northeast.

Public transportation was shut down in New York City on Sunday and a decision was made to close the New York Stock Exchange for Monday.

Authorities waed that the nation's biggest city could get hit with a surge of seawater that could swamp parts of lower Manhattan, flood subway tunnels and cripple the network of electrical and communications lines that are vital to the nation's financial center.

Sandy, a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 mph as of Sunday evening, was blamed for 65 deaths in the Caribbean before it began traveling northward, parallel to the Easte Seaboard. As of 2 a.m. Monday, it was centered about 425 miles southeast of New York City, moving to the north at 14 mph, with hurricane-force winds extending an incredible 175 miles from its center.

Sandy is also being blamed for fueling strong wind gusts in parts of Georgia that knocked out power for thousands of people.

Channel 2 Meteorologist Karen Minton said metro Atlanta is under a wind advisory until 8 a.m. Tuesday for winds at least 20-30 mph and gusts up to 35 mph.

The National Weather Service said the combination of Hurricane Sandy and high pressure building south from Canada is the cause of the gusty winds. Forecasters say wind gusts of up to 55 mph are possible in Lumpkin, Towns, Union and White counties in northeast Georgia.

"The north Georgia mountains are under a High Wind Waing through tomorrow moing for possible wind gusts to 50 mph," Minton said.

Georgia Power reported early Monday moing that as many as 4,500 customers -- mostly in Atlanta -- were without power, but that number dropped to 1,000 statewide by 6:30 a.m.

"Hurricane Sandy’s maximum winds increased to 85 mph this moing.  The center of Sandy will move over the mid-Atlantic coast this evening or tonight, possibly along the New Jersey coast," Minton said. "Sandy is expected to merge with a winter storm prior to landfall.  People should take this storm very seriously.  The transition from hurricane to a wintertime low pressure system does not mean it will lose strength.  In fact, it may get stronger during the transition.  Once it has moved inland it will begin to lose some strength."

Authorites in the northeast are urging residents to follow evacuation orders.

“The time for preparing and talking is about over," Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate said Sunday as Hurricane Sandy made its way up the Atlantic on a collision course with two other weather systems that could tu it into one of the most fearsome storms on record in the U.S. "People need to be acting now."

Sandy was expected to hook inland during the day Monday, colliding with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.

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 on Wednesday.

"Sandy could cause an extremely dangerous storm surge if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide.  Storm surge estimates at Long Island Sound and New York Harbor are 6-11 feet.  Rain estimates are 4-8 inches with isolated 12 inches possible in those areas," Minton said.
  
Airlines canceled more than 7,200 flights and Amtrak began suspending train service across the Northeast. New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore moved to shut down their subways, buses and trains and said schools would be closed on Monday. Boston also called off school. And all non-essential govement offices closed in the nation's capital.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg waed: "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. This is a serious and dangerous storm."
  
New Jersey's famously blunt Gov. Chris Christie was less polite: "Don't be stupid. Get out."

"We didn't anticipate things going bad until tomorrow; we thought we were okay to travel today," traveler Frank Flores told Channel 2's Ashley Swann.

But that wasn't the case for Flores and his family. The New Jersey natives were in Atlanta for the weekend and never imagined they'd get to the airport Sunday afteoon to see the departure screen lit up with cancellations.

"The airline must be really busy because they haven't called me to let me know it was cancelled," said Flores, noting the circumstances put a little damper on their trip to Atlanta.

Georgia Power crews are on their way to Maryland and the Atlanta Red Cross said it is closely monitoring Sandy’s progress and crews are ready to go.

In Washington, President Barack Obama promised the govement would "respond big and respond fast" after the storm hits.
  
"My message to the goveors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there, and we will cut through red tape. We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules," he said.
  
He also pleaded for neighborliness: "In times like this, one of the things that Americans do is we pull together and we help out one another. And so, there may be elderly populations in your area. Check on your neighbor, check on your friend. Make sure that they are prepared. If we do, then we're going to get through this storm just fine."
  
The storm forced the president and Mitt Romney to rearrange their campaign schedules in the crucial closing days of the presidential race. And early voting on Monday in Maryland and the District of Columbia was canceled.