Superstorm Sandy claims 13 lives in the US, nuclear plant on alert

30 October, 2012

The deadly super storm has started showing its killing impact in the United States. As per the various reports coming in, so far, 13 people have been killed, after the storm hit the East Coast. The 13-foot surge of seawater at New York City has left around 5.2 million people powerless.

THE 13 deaths were reported in New York, West Verginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Victims were reported to be killed as trees fell on them. A death has also been reported from Toronto, Canada as a woman was killed by a falling sign due to high winds.

According to FoxNews, backup power has been lost at New York University hospital and the city is working to move people out. The New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a news conference on Monday night said that rain was tapering off in the city and the storm surge was expected to recede by midnight. The hospital complex is near the East River in an area of lower Manhattan where flooding has been reported.

The hurricane-turned-post-tropical cyclone, still a powerful, 900-mile-wide hybrid of several weather systems, sent 30-foot-high swells toward New Jersey, and as its eye passed over the shoreline, a surge as high as 10 feet tore into dunes and washed across boardwalks.

Meanwhile, Exelon Corp has declared an "alert" at its New Jersey Oyster Creek nuclear power plant due to a record storm surge. A further rise in water levels could force operators to use emergency water supplies from a fire hose to cool spent uranium fuel rods.

US President Barrack Obama has left his Presidential campaign in the midway and returned to the situation room at the White House to keep a tab on the relief work. Obama has urged the people residing in storm-affected areas to listen and obey instructions from the local authorities.

So far 13,000 flights have been canceled from the New York City and other affected airports. Tens of thousands of people have got orders to evacuate those areas which are supposed to be affected by the super storm. 375,000 people in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York City and at least 50,000 were ordered to evacuate in Delaware alone and 30,000 in Atlantic City, N.J.