Post date: Oct 29, 2012 3:52:35 PM
Hurricane Sandy churns in the Atlantic, causing giant waves to pound the East Coast shoreline.
OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 29, 2012) (REUTERS) - Hurricane Sandy, the monster storm bearing down on the East Coast, strengthened on Monday (October 29) after hundreds of thousands moved to higher ground, public transport shut down and the stock market suffered its first weather-related closure in 27 years.
In Ocean City, Maryland, a popular beach getaway about 3 hours away Washington, D.C., giant waves crashed ashore and damaged part of the fishing pier. Officials warned residents to stay off the roads as conditions threatened to get worse.The beach remained largely empty with the exception of a few bystanders who turned out to photograph the waves.
Rough seas pounded the pier in Virginia and in Chatham, Massachusetts where residents secured their boats ahead of the storm's wrath.
About 50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada were in the path of the nearly 1,000-mile-wide (1,600-km-wide) storm, which forecasters said could be the largest to hit the mainland in U.S. history. It was expected to topple trees, damage buildings, cause power outages and trigger heavy flooding.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday the Category 1 storm had strengthened as it turned toward the coast and was moving at 20 miles per hour (32 km per hour). It was expected to bring a "life-threatening storm surge," coastal hurricane winds and heavy snow in the Appalachian Mountains, the NHC said.