Matt Francis of Virginia Beach holds on to his hat as the wind-driven sand and rain from Hurricane Sandy blow across the beaches of Sandbridge in Virginia Beach on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. (L. Todd Spencer/The Virginian-Pilot)
Mike Strobel fills sandbags for his business, Mike's Carpet Connection, on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Fenwick Island, Del., as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the Mid-Atlantic states. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A car goes through high water in Ocean City, Md., on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the Mid-Atlantic coast. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Ocean water rolls over Route 12 at the north end of Buxton, N.C., at dawn on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, as waves from Hurricane Sandy battered Hatteras Island. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Steve Earley)
High winds blow sea foam into the air as a pedestrian crosses Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head, N.C., on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, as wind and rain from Hurricane Sandy move into the area. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Large waves generated by Hurricane Sandy crash into Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head, N.C., Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, as the storm moves up the East Coast. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Store workers Fletcher Birch, right, and Jay Kleman finish boarding up the windows on a surf store in Ocean City, Md., on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy approaches the Atlantic coast. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
A worker boards up the windows of the store as Hurricane Sandy approaches in Ocean City, Md., on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Palms along highway 24 at the Nancy Lee Fishing Center bend in the tropical storm-force winds being generated by Hurricane Sandy, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012 in Atlantic Beach, N.C. (AP Photo/The Jacksonville Daily News, Chuck Beckley)
Red flags fly from a lifeguard station as Hurricane Sandy passes offshore to the east, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, in Miami Beach, Fla. Hurricane Sandy left at least 21 people dead as it moved through the Caribbean, following a path that could see it blend with a winter storm and reach the U.S. East Coast as a super-storm next week. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
A resident holds a metal sheet on the roof of a damaged house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 25, 2012, after heavy rains brought by Hurricane Sandy . The hurricane was blamed for the death of an elderly man in Jamaica who was crushed by a boulder. Another man and two women died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in southwestern Haiti. (Associated Press)
A woman stands at the entrance of her house in front of a fallen palm tree after the passing of Hurricane Sandy in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on Oct. 25, 2012. Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba on Thursday as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean. (Associated Press)
A fallen placard lies on the ground after the passing of Hurricane Sandy in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on Oct. 25, 2012. Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean. (Associated Press)
Soldiers an rescue workers patrol after the passing of Hurricane Sandy in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on Oct. 25, 2012. Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean. (Associated Press)
Resident Antonio Garces tries to recover his belongings from his house, destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, in Aguacate, Cuba, on Oct. 25, 2012. Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean. (Associated Press)
Fallen palm trees lie on a road in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on Oct. 25, 2012, after Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean. (Associated Press)
Resident Antonio Garces tries to recover his belongings from his house, destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, in Aguacate, Cuba, on Oct. 25, 2012. Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean. (Associated Press)
A Fort Lauderdale Police car stops at a fallen palm tree trunk blocking a road in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Oct. 25, 2012. (Associated Press)
A surfer (rear left) takes advantage of waves produced by Hurricane Sandy's outer bands at Haulover Beach in Miami as the Bal Harbour police patrol the area on Oct. 25, 2012. (Associated Press/El Nuevo Herald)
A man removes mud from his tap tap with flood water caused by heavy rains from Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 25, 2012 in La Plaine, Haiti, as residents of the Port-au-Prince neighbor tried to recover from the aftermath of the storm. (Associated Press/The Miami Herald)
A resident carries a metal sheet, part of a damaged house after heavy rains brought by Hurricane Sandy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 25, 2012. Sandy was blamed for the death of an elderly man in Jamaica who was crushed by a boulder. Another man and two women died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in southwestern Haiti. (Associated Press)
A man watches a river affected by heavy rains brought by Hurricane Sandy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 25, 2012. Sandy was blamed for the death of an elderly man in Jamaica who was crushed by a boulder. Another man and two women died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in southwestern Haiti. (Associated Press)
A resident drains mud from a flooded house after heavy rains brought by Hurricane Sandy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 25, 2012. Sandy was blamed for the death of an elderly man in Jamaica who was crushed by a boulder. Another man and two women died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in southwestern Haiti. (Associated Press)
A driver maneuvers his classic American car along a wet road in Havana on Oct. 25, 2012, as a wave crashes against the car. Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean. (Associated Press)
Residents stand Oct. 25, 2012, on a bridge that was previously destroyed in 2008 by Tropical Storm Gustav, while watching Hope River swell in the village of Kintyre, near Kingston, Jamaica, after the passing of Hurricane Sandy. (Associated Press)
In this image taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES East satellite on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, Hurricane Sandy is seen on the East Coast of the United States. (AP Photo/NOAA)
Piles of sand were trucked onto the beach at 2nd Avenue in North Wildwood, N.J., Friday Oct. 26, 2012 as the storm approaches. A year after being walloped by Hurricane Irene, residents rushed to put away boats, harvest crops and sandbag boardwalks Friday as the Eastern Seaboard braced for a rare megastorm that experts said would cause much greater havoc (AP Photo/The Press of Atlantic City, Dale Gerhard)
Piles of sand were trucked onto the beach at 2nd Avenue in ... more >SHIP BOTTOM, N.J. (AP) — Forget distinctions like tropical storm or hurricane. Don’t get fixated on a particular track. Wherever it hits, the rare behemoth storm inexorably gathering in the eastern U.S. will afflict a third of the country with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow, say officials who warned millions in coastal areas to get out of the way.
“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.
As Hurricane Sandy barreled north from the Caribbean — where it left nearly five dozen dead — to meet two other powerful winter storms, experts said it didn’t matter how strong the storm was when it hit land: The rare hybrid storm that follows will cause havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.
“This is not a coastal threat alone,” said Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “This is a very large area.”
President Barack Obama was monitoring the storm and working with state and locals governments to make sure they get the resources needed to prepare, administration officials said.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency Saturday as hundreds of coastal residents started moving inland and the state was set to close its casinos. New York’s governor was considering shutting down the subways to avoid flooding and half a dozen states warned residents to prepare for several days of lost power.
Sandy weakened briefly to a tropical storm early Saturday but was soon back up to Category 1 strength, packing 75 mph winds about 355 miles southeast of Charleston, S.C., as of 8 p.m. Experts said the storm was most likely to hit the southern New Jersey coastline by late Monday or early Tuesday.
Governors from North Carolina, where heavy rain was expected Sunday, to Connecticut declared states of emergency. Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal communities by 8 p.m. Sunday.
Christie, who was widely criticized for not interrupting a family vacation in Florida while a snowstorm pummeled the state in 2010, broke off campaigning for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in North Carolina on Friday to return home.
“I can be as cynical as anyone,” the pugnacious chief executive said in a bit of understatement Saturday. “But when the storm comes, if it’s as bad as they’re predicting, you’re going to wish you weren’t as cynical as you otherwise might have been.”
The storm forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules. Romney scrapped plans to campaign Sunday in the swing state of Virginia and switched his schedule for the day to Ohio. First lady Michelle Obama canceled an appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a planned Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night to beat the storm. He canceled appearances in Northern Virginia on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday.
In Ship Bottom, just north of Atlantic City, Alice and Giovanni Stockton-Rossini spent Saturday packing clothing in the backyard of their home, a few hundred yards from the ocean on Long Beach Island. Their neighborhood was under a voluntary evacuation order, but they didn’t need to be forced.
“It’s really frightening,” Alice Stockton-Rossi said. “But you know how many times they tell you, ‘This is it, it’s really coming and it’s really the big one’ and then it turns out not to be? I’m afraid people will tune it out because of all the false alarms before … (but) this one might be the one.”
A few blocks away, Russ Linke was taking no chances. He and his wife secured the patio furniture, packed the bicycles into the pickup truck, and headed off the island.
What makes the storm so dangerous and unusual is that it is coming at the tail end of hurricane season and the beginning of winter storm season, “so it’s kind of taking something from both,” said Jeff Masters, director of the private service Weather Underground.
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