A sailboat smashes on the rocks in New York Storm-driven waves crashed ashore and flooded seafront communities across the US East Coast on Monday as Hurricane Sandy barreled towards land amid catastrophic predictions. Officials warned that the threat to life and property was "unprecedented" and ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in cities and towns from New England to North Carolina to evacuate their homes and seek shelter.
The storm, a deadly combination of a tropical hurricane rolling north from the Caribbean and fierce wintry winds approaching from Canada, was expected to leave tens of millions without power and tens of thousands of homes flooded.
Amtrak trains up and down the coast were cancelled until Wednesday and tens of thousands of travelers were marooned in airports. The Department of Energy said 36,000 households in seven states were already without power.
"The most important message to the public I have right now, is 'please listen to what your state and local officials are saying.' When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate," President Barack Obama said.
The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the futures markets in Chicago were closed on Monday. Some of the world's richest cities were effectively shut for business and the US election campaign was severely disrupted.
Disaster estimator Eqecat said the storm would affect 60 million Americans, a fifth of the population, and could leave up to $20 billion (15 billion euros) in damage.
The center of the category one hurricane, which had already killed at least 66 people in the Caribbean, is expected to make landfall in southern New Jersey or Delaware between 2200 GMT Monday and 0000 GMT Tuesday.
Streets leading up to Atlantic City's famed ocean-front boardwalk were flooded, and mostly deserted as the city braced for high tide. In nearby Ocean City, a section of promenade was smashed and fell into the storm surge.
Television footage showed widespread flooding in coastal areas of Long Island and New Jersey and a crane partially collapsed and was left dangling precariously over a street between skyscrapers in Manhattan.
Forecasters have warned that the storm's effects could extend all the way from North Carolina to New England. Parts of New York and Boston were subject to evacuation orders, and Washington was rain-swept and deserted.
As it approached, Sandy's maximum sustained winds strengthened to 90 miles (150 kilometers) per hour. At 1900 GMT, its eye was located about 85 miles southeast of the evacuated gambling haven of Atlantic City.
With just eight days until polling day, Obama cancelled an appearance in the swing state of Florida, returning to the White House to steer the relief effort while citizens watched the weather on live webcams.
"The election will take care of itself next week," Obama said. "Right now, our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives... and that we respond as quickly as possible to get the economy back on track."