Obama declares disaster in NY amid Sandy's wake

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in the New York City area Tuesday as superstorm Sandy pounded the Northeast coast, sweeping homes out into the ocean, flooding subway tunnels, killing at least 11 people and leaving millions without power.

As the East Coast woke up Tuesday, the widespread and profound extent of the devastation became clear:

• 7.8 million customers were without power in the affected states, The Weather Channel reported. NBC meteorologist Bill Karins warned to "expect the cleanup and power outage restoration to continue right up through Election Day."
• Seven subway tunnels under East River in New York City were flooded as of Monday night, MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota said in a statement. "The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night," he said.
• New York University Medical Center was moving about 215 patients to other hospitals because its backup generator was out, the hospital said. Critical patients ? including infants in neonatal intensive care ? were being taken by ambulance to Mount Sinai Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering and New York Presbyterian Hospital.
• The storm surge destroyed a number of houses on Fire Island, New York, where some people had decided to sit out Sandy, according to a local official.
• A crane atop a high-rise building under construction in New York City also toppled over and was dangling over the side. Nearby offices and streets were evacuated.
• The towns of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt, N.J., were "devastated" by the sudden arrival of 4 to 5 feet of water, Geanne Baratta, chief of the Bergen County Executive, told Reuters.

• Dawn Zimmer, mayor of Hoboken, N.J., told MSNBC TV that half the city was flooded and that emergency crews could reach few areas of the city. "We want people to be aware that it's a very dangerous situation," she said.
• Rising waters sparked an alert at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey at 8:45 p.m. ET Monday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a statement. It said the alert was the "second lowest of four NRC action levels" and was "due to water exceeding certain high water level criteria in the plant?s water intake structure." Exelon said in a statement that there was no danger to equipment and no threat to public health or safety.
• The transport network was badly affected with more than 13,000 flights canceled Monday and more than 3,500 called off Tuesday.Rail traffic was also heavily affected, with Amtrak canceling all of its Northeast Corridor service, in addition to some other lines.
• Amid the chaos, firefighters were tackling a massive fire that has destroyed at least 50 houses in a flooded area of the New York borough of Queens, NBCNewYork.com reported. The cause of the fire, which began about 11 p.m. Monday, was not immediately known.

The historic storm, which made landfall at 6:45 a.m. ET, hurled a wall of water of up to 13 feet high at the Northeast coast Monday, causing widespread damage.

Smartphone users: Watch TODAY's live coverage of Sandy

"I think the losses will be almost incalculable," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told TODAY. A disaster forecasting company predicted economic losses could ultimately reach $20 billion, Reuters said.

Tuesday's disaster declaration for New York means that federal funds will be available to people affected by the storm in the Bronx, Kings, Nassau, New York, Richmond, Suffolk, and Queens, according to a White House statement.

Video: Sandy?s devastation: Deaths, floods, outages (on this page)

FEMA said that damage surveys were continuing along the Northeast coast. A FEMA spokeswoman told NBC News that an update on the extent of the damage was expected within the next few hours.

The National Weather Service warned "historic and life-threatening coastal flooding" through Tuesday morning, with the greatest danger coming at high tides. The next high tide will reach New York's Brooklyn Bridge at 9:31 a.m. ET.

In a public advisory notice issued at 5 a.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and was about 15 miles east of York, Pennsylvania. It was moving west-northwest at about 15 mph.

Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast (on this page)

Baratta, the Bergen County official, said that "we are in rescue mode," but said there were no immediate reports of fatalities. Local officials told Reuters the water had broken through a levee.

Police told NBCNewYork.com that 2,000 people were displaced within 30 minutes of the "incident," but were unable to confirm if it was caused by a breach or simply the tide topping the barrier.

Rescuers were also headed to Fire Island, N.Y., where Joe Williams, the commissioner of Suffolk County, told NBC News that "we definitely lost some homes into the ocean."

"One community ... the count right now is about seven. We have numerous homes reported that have collapsed during the storm on Fire Island," he said.

Video: Surging water, winds hammer Long Island (on this page)

Williams said it was hoped helicopters would be able to survey the damage Tuesday morning with first responders due to arrive on the island by 12 p.m. ET.

"The reports we're getting from Fire Island, most of them -- Fire Island right now is covered in 4 feet of water. So it's impossible for us to land these helicopters but we've been reassured that these people who stayed, most of them are year-round residents. They're pretty strong with this," he said.

Video: Roker: Thunderstorm watch issued for New England (on this page)

Weather.com warned that the high tide Tuesday would result in "additional coastal flooding" from the Delmarva Peninsula to southern New England.

Numerous towns along the New Jersey shore, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island, flooded with Monday's morning high tide.

And "in a sign of how extraordinarily large Sandyis," weather.com said that lakeshore flood warnings had been issued for parts of the Great Lakes including Chicago.

Blizzard warnings have also been posted for the mountains of West Virginia, western Virginia and Garrett County, Md. The largest amount of snow reported as of Monday evening was 16 inches in Tucker County, W.V.

Weather Channel coverage of Sandy

BreakingNews.com's coverage of Sandy

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Seawater surged into lower Manhattan and areas of Brooklyn, submerging entire streets and parks Monday. An all-time record tide level of 13.88 feet was set at The Battery in Lower Manhattan, Monday night, breaking the previous record of 11.2 feet from 1821, as well as Sandy Hook, N.J., shattering the previous record from the Dec. 1992 Nor'easter and Hurricane Donna in 1960, according to weather.com.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said late Monday that New Yorkers threatened their own and other people's lives by going out in the storm. "You have to stay wherever you are," he said.

Video: Bloomberg: ?Stay where you are? (on this page)

"DO NOT DRIVE. Call 9-1-1 for emergencies only," the city's Office of Emergency Preparedness said in blast alerts to mobile devices across the city.

Video: Crane hangs from luxury high rise

The powerful storm flooded sections of Atlantic City and other areas of the New Jersey shore. Part of the fabled Atlantic City boardwalk was washed away.

Christie sharply criticized Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford, whom he blamed for having "advised people to stay in shelters in the city."

"Despite my admonition to evacuate, he gave them comfort, for some reason, to stay," Christie said, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported.

Video: Hoboken mayor estimates 50% of city underwater (on this page)

At least 11 people have died:

• Two men were killed in separate incidents in New York ? one in Queens and one on Long Island ? when trees fell on them, authorities told NBC New York, and a woman was electrocuted in Queens when she stepped into water that concealed a live wire.
• Two boys were killed in Westchester County, N.Y., when a tree crashed into the home they were in in North Salem.
• Two people died when a tree fell on their car in northern New Jersey, authorities told NBC Philadelphia. Christie said Tuesday a total of three people had died in the state, the circumstances of the third death were not immediately known.
• One person was killed when a car hydroplaned over high water in Montgomery County, Md., in the suburbs of Washington, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley told MSNBC TV.
• One person died after a tree fell in Mansfield, Conn., NBC Connecticut reported.
• A woman died in an accident on snow-covered roads in Tucker County in northeastern West Virginia, NBC station WSAZ of Huntington reported.
• One person was killed when the crew abandoned a replica of the HMS Bounty 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C. Fourteen others were rescued, but the captain was missing. The ship later sank in 18-foot seas.

Video: Power outages, flooding, hit Rhode Island

Before it made its way north, Sandy was blamed for the deaths of 65 people in the Caribbean.

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Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49605748/ns/weather/

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