Hurricane Sandy strengthened overnight off the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States and is expected to bring a “life-threatening storm surge”, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said early Monday.
Maximum sustained winds of about 85 miles per hour were recorded 385 miles southeast of New York City, which forecasters warned could be hit by a wall of water up to 11 feet high.
The center of the storm was forecast to make landfall Monday night, likely in central or southern New Jersey, leaving millions of residents with only hours to prepare for its onslaught.
“We’re looking at impact of greater than 50 to 60 million people,” said Louis Uccellini, head of environmental prediction for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Forecasters said Sandy has the ingredients to transform into a “super storm” as it merges with an Arctic jet stream, which could make the storm unlike anything seen over the eastern United States in decades.
Posted by Libergirl
TheConfirmationFiles 