Sandy closes major U.S. airports, flights grounded worldwide
By Nick Thompson, CNN




(CNN) Airlines around the world canceled flights to and from the northeast United States as a massive storm slammed into the coast of New Jersey and New York.
Hurricane Sandy, now rated as a “post-tropical” superstorm, forced the closure of New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports and Newark in New Jersey “until further notice” as rising flood waters washed across parts of the city, while domestic and international flights were canceled at other major airports in the region.


Middle Eastern, European, Asian and U.S. airlines prepared to take a financial hit, with the weather stranding their passengers in cities across the globe.
“Every day this goes on you’re seeing combined losses to the airlines of roughly $10 million,” said Simon Calder, travel editor of the UK’s The Independent newspaper.

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“The cost is actually much worse for European airlines like British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, because they have to pay for accommodation and meals for their customers who are stuck in the U.S. particularly in New York.”
European Union law says airlines have a “duty of care” to take care of stranded passengers. There is no such law governing U.S. airlines.
“Delta and United can just say, ‘Sorry, this is a weather event and you’re not covered,’” Calder told CNN.
At least 50,000 travelers between the UK and U.S. have been affected by the storm, Calder estimates.
In Asia, airlines grounded more flights as the extent of the storm became clear.
Australia’s Qantas, Korean Airlines and Japan’s JAL canceled all New York-bound flights on Tuesday and Cathay Pacific said Wednesday’s departures to JFK would also be scrubbed.
With 11 flights canceled to and from New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore, British Airways has offered to rebook flights for its passengers.
A statement on BA’s website said: “We understand that customers may be disappointed, however their safety is our highest priority.”
The airline’s flights to and from Boston were expected to operate normally.
Britain’s Virgin Atlantic also canceled all flights to New York, but announced that flights to Washington and Boston were scheduled to begin again on Tuesday.
More than 80 flights from London’s Heathrow Airport to the U.S. East Coast were canceled, including 47 arrivals and 37 departures.
Sandy halts travel along East Coast
Karen Mackenzie from Essex, in southeastern England, was planning to fly Monday to New York on a Virgin holiday package, but the airline canceled her entire holiday due to the storm.
While Virgin Atlantic gave Mackenzie a full refund, the elementary school principal says her schedule means she won’t be able to rebook the holiday until next year.

“I feel really horrible for those poor people in New York at the moment. It’s disappointing to lose our holiday, but for them it’s a much more hideous situation,” she told CNN.
Qatar Airways and the United Arab Emirates-based airlines Etihad and Emirates also canceled flights to the U.S. northeast. In a statement Emirates said the safety of their passengers “will not be compromised.”
Air France, Germany’s Lufthansa, Ireland’s Aer Lingus and Turkish Airlines have also scrubbed flights in and out of New York.
Sandy claims ‘Bounty’ off North Carolina
Some 50 million people from Virginia to Massachusetts are expected to feel the effect of Sandy, which made landfall in New Jersey late Monday.
The cost of potential wind damage alone could be up to $3 billion, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The storm has also prompted thousands of domestic flight cancellations across America.
While all American Airlines flights to the east coast are canceled, the airline is operating a normal service to other parts of the country.
United Airlines grounded roughly 3,700 flights between Sunday and Wednesday, and Delta said all flights from Washington to Boston, and out of New York and Philadelphia, were canceled.
Both companies are allowing some customers to change their flight plans without paying any fees due to the storm.
So how long will it take for airlines to get stranded passengers to their destinations once the hurricane subsides? Not long, according to CNN’s Richard Quest, who said the problem should start being resolved from Wednesday.
“All the airlines have exceptionally sophisticated recovery programs,” he explained. “What they do is they don’t make the flight to the first place. They don’t send the aircraft into the bad areas, so they don’t get stranded. They’re now already starting to work out flights for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You write off Monday and Tuesday, then you start to rebuild the schedule.”
“After the [Icelandic volcanic] ash cloud two years ago, airlines were able to restore the schedule quite quickly, simply because people canceled their flights [and didn't rebook]. And that’s what the airlines are banking on.
“I’m guessing that by the weekend everyone [will have] got where they need to be.”

Sandy’s impact: State by state
Have you been affected by Sandy? If so, share your images and footage with CNN iReport, but please stay safe.
(CNN) States along the East Coast were pummeled as Superstorm Sandy came crashing ashore.
The storm officially made landfall along the coast of southern New Jersey Monday night, but it is affecting a much wider area.
By early Tuesday, more than 7.5 million customers were without power in 15 U.S. states and Washington, according to the latest CNN estimate.
At least 29 people have died in the United States.
President Barack Obama has signed disaster declarations for New York and New Jersey. He has signed emergency declarations for other states and the nation’s capital.
Nearly 11,000 people spent Monday night in scores of Red Cross-operated shelters in the hard-hit mid-Atlantic region.

Here’s a look at how Sandy has affected U.S. states and Canada.
Sandy’s trail of devastation and it’s not over

CONNECTICUT
The death toll stands at two, according to state police spokesman Lt J. Paul Vance. The two victims one of them a firefighter in Easton were killed by falling trees.
Utilities said 627,870 customers were without power.
DELAWARE
Power went down for 69,345 customers in Delaware, authorities said. Delmarva Power reported it cannot assess the time it will take to restore power because of the intensity of the storm.
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell scaled back driving restrictions Tuesday morning.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington officials said 22,121 customers were without power.
Washington’s Metro will restore bus and rail service on most lines using a Sunday schedule beginning at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday. Normal service is expected to resume for Wednesday morning’s commute.
MAINE
About 88,332 homes and businesses are without electricity, according to Central Maine Power. Around 1,000 workers will begin repairing lines early Tuesday.
MARYLAND
Two people have died in Maryland because of Sandy, according to an emergency management official. A falling tree hit a house, killing a man inside. A car accident blamed on the storm accounted for the other death.
Raw sewage is leaking rapidly from a plant in Howard County, emergency management spokeswoman Karen Spicer said. About 2 million gallons of sewage per hour are pouring out of the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant as a result of a power outage.
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said 191,998 customers were without power.
A state of emergency remains in effect, according to Maryland’s Emergency Management Agency.
More than two feet of snow has fallen in Western Maryland, forecasters say.
Transit systems struggling to restart
MASSACHUSETTS
State employees will be going to work Tuesday, according to the government’s website. But the state moved the start of the office day back to 10 a.m.
A count from utilities said 323,366 customers were without power.
The Bay State’s emergency agency warned residents of continuing dangerous winds into Tuesday, which could cause power outages, and reminded them that coastal flooding was expected overnight.
Hoping to avoid the kind of criticism utilities received after last year’s Hurricane Irene and other storms, Gov. Deval Patrick said utilities plan to pair tree removal and power restoration crews, rather than having them work separately, so that work can be done more efficiently.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire’s power suppliers reported there were 236,831 customers without electricity.
Gov. John Lynch urged drivers to stay off the state’s roads.
The governor asked the National Guard to place 100 troops on active duty, with 100 more on standby.
NEW JERSEY
Emergency workers saw widespread damage on every New Jersey rail line.
A tidal surge stranded massive rail cars on the New Jersey Turnpike.
There are houses in the middle of Route 35. The amusement pier at Seaside Park is half washed out, and amusement park rides are now in the ocean.
Sandy has killed at least three in the Garden State.
People rescued from roofs of trailer homes in New Jersey
Two people in Morris County died Monday evening when a tree fell on their car, authorities said. A male of unknown age was also killed in Hawthorne when a tree fell on a house, according to Hawthorne Fire Chief Joseph Speranza.
A dam or levee broke early Tuesday in the town of Moonachie, said Jeanne Baratta, chief of staff for the Bergen County executive. Rescues are under way in Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt, where 4 to 5 feet of water has flooded streets. Thousands of people may be in need of rescue, she said. People are standing on their roofs.
Sandy has left 2,336,752 customers without electricity, the most power outages of any state.
Flooding has been reported in parts of Atlantic City and Hoboken.
New Jersey Transit will remain suspended indefinitely. Flooding from Sandy also forced the closure of Newark Liberty International and Teterboro airports.
The Garden State Parkway in New Jersey is now open, but more than 200 other state roads remain closed because of Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie said in a Twitter message Tuesday.
NEW YORK
Outerbridge Crossing, George Washington, Goethals and Bayonne bridges have been reopened, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Tuesday.
The Tappan Zee Bridge, the busy span over the Hudson River, is now open, the New York governor’s office said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sandy has killed 15 people in the state.
A record-setting power outage in New York City darkened a large Manhattan hospital, triggering a patient evacuation.
80 homes destroyed by New York fire amid superstorm
About 1,780,347 customers are without power, according to numbers from power suppliers.
New York’s LaGuardia Airport is not expected to open Wednesday due to damage from Sandy, but John F. Kennedy International Airport will most likely be reopened, Cuomo said.
New York University Langone Medical Center went dark late Monday. More than 200 patients were being evacuated after backup power failed, said Lisa Greiner, a spokeswoman for the hospital.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said more than 80 houses were believed to be lost in the Breezy Point fire in Queens.
Water spilled into subway tunnels connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn and with Queens, said Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Aaron Donavan. The water will have to be pumped out as it will not recede on its own.
The subway system remains closed entirely, as does MTA’s bus system.
Two roadway tunnels linking Manhattan to the two boroughs took on water, too, and seven MTA bridges are closed because of high winds.
Obama declared a disaster in New York state, freeing up federal funds for the counties of Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), Nassau, New York, Richmond (Staten Island), Suffolk and Queens.
A crane atop a luxury Manhattan skyscraper under construction partly collapsed Monday, leaving its arm precariously perched and hanging over West 57th Street.
NORTH CAROLINA
The captain of HMS Bounty, a tall sailing ship used for classic adventure films, remains missing after Hurricane Sandy forced the crew to abandon ship about 90 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Two helicopter crews saved 14 people stranded in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday. A deckhand missing from the 180-foot ship was found dead, the Coast Guard said. The guard is searching for the missing captain about 125 miles southeast of Hatteras, North Carolina.
About 112,217 customers were without power.
North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue has declared a state of emergency for 24 counties in the western part of her state because of snow.
OHIO
High winds, flooding and snow have hit parts of the state.
Power suppliers said 249,546 homes and businesses lost power.
PENNSYLVANIA
Sandy claimed its first victims in Pennsylvania on Monday night.
An 8-year-old boy was struck by a tree limb in Susquehanna County. He was pronounced dead at a residence in Franklin Township, according to state police.
Gerald Witman of Oley, 62, was killed when a falling tree struck him, according to Pennsylvania State Police spokesman David Beohm.
Another person died in a traffic accident in Somerset County, Gov. Tom Corbett said.
Utilities said 1,254,261 homes and businesses lost power.
Thirty-eight Pennsylvania counties were under emergency declarations, and 1,700 National Guard troops are on the ground, Corbett said.
RHODE ISLAND
The smallest state in the union, with a little more than 1 million residents, reported 116,583 customers without electricity. The state gets its power supply from the National Grid. Outages were concentrated in the southern part of the state, affiliate WPRI-TV in Providence reported.
Few used public evacuation shelters. There is widespread road debris, “but no casualties and relatively little alarm,” according to WPRI.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Power suppliers said 3,144 homes and businesses lost power.
VIRGINIA
Two storm-related traffic fatalities have been confirmed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The deaths occurred in the central region of the state.
Sandbags were piled up inside restaurants in the Old Town section of Alexandria along the banks of the Potomac River.
The number of customers without power stood at 299,473.
WEST VIRGINIA
The state is asking that only its essential state employees report to work Tuesday, the governor’s office said.
A woman was killed when her car collided with a cement truck after the storm dumped 5 inches of snow on the town of Davis, authorities said.
West Virginia has declared a state of emergency as Sandy dumped heavy snow and rain in parts of the Appalachian Mountains.
Utilities said 340,428 customers lost power.
There are 12 counties under a blizzard warning until 6 p.m.
CANADA
There were an estimated 800 storm-related outages across the Canadian province of Ontario, affecting about 150,000 customers, the provincial energy minister said.
The hardest-hit Ontario communities are Toronto, Waterloo, Peterborough, Owen Sound and Sarnia.

Article Resource:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/29/travel/hurricane-sandy-flight-cancellations/index.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/30/us/tropical-weather-state-by-state/index.html

Hurricane safety: When the lights go out

(CNN) – Hurricane shutters, water jugs and batteries are not the only things to consider when extreme weather threatens the coast.

Power outages and evacuations can pose safety issues, especially for those managing chronic illnesses.

Here are some tips to stay healthy when the lights go out:

Managing your medications

The elderly and chronically ill need to take note of their medications when the power goes out. Insulin and some liquid medications may require cooling, says Dr. David Seaburg, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Lunch bags containing a cool pack are a good option for those products.

For those facing evacuation, it’s important to have a record — either a piece of paper or a computer accessible file — with the names and dosage information of your prescription drugs. Ideally, it should be prepared in advance.

For diabetics, a supply of snacks is essential, along with insulin and any other medications, says Dr. David Ross, a Colorado Springs, Colorado, emergency physician who assisted victims of the Waldo Canyon Fire this summer.

Ross also suggests that people have an emergency one-month supply of prescription medications, so they will not be caught short-handed.

And Seaburg adds, “If you have a chronic illness or take prescription medications and you are evacuated or choose to go to a community center, make someone aware that you have a medical condition, so they will know what to check for if your behavior seems a little unusual.”

Gadgets to help you survive a power outage

Breathing easy

Another consideration during a loss of power is for patients with chronic breathing problems.

People who require continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, devices for sleep apnea or other sleep issues will need an alternative source of power. There are options available for most machines, including CPAP battery packs, DC power options, marine battery adapters and travel-specific CPAP machines to provide power in the event of an electrical outage.

Chowing down

Keeping food at a healthy temperature may be a challenge during a power loss.

Refrigerators keep dairy products, meat, fish, poultry and eggs at a healthy temperature if they are 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If your power goes out, your refrigerator will stay at the proper temperature for about four hours if it’s unopened. Placing ice bags or dry ice will help to maintain healthy cooling.

A full freezer will remain cool for about 48 hours, or for about 24 hours if half full. It’s a good idea to have digital thermometers on hand to check the temperature.

Once the thermometer goes above the recommended temperature, avoid eating any dairy products, meat, fish, poultry or eggs. Throw away items that have been compromised.

The USDA suggests keeping a supply of canned and packaged foods that do not require refrigeration. Coolers are a good solution if your power will be on within 24 hours. And knowing where to purchase ice and dry ice is a good way to plan for an emergency.

Disaster dining: Stay safe, fed, caffeinated and entertained

Meal ideas

The Mayo Clinic suggests stocking up on condiments, particularly those that are vinegar-based and have a long shelf life, such as ketchup, mustard and soy sauce.

Keep canned protein such as chicken, salmon, beans and peanut butter on hand, the clinic recommends, and keep boxes of powdered milk or shelf-stable milk cartons handy. Also, don’t forget a manual can opener.

Eating out of a can doesn’t have to be boring, says Ron Stone, assistant director of nutrition at the Mayo Clinic in Florida.

“There are many options to mix and match from your pantry, and with advance planning and a little creativity, you can provide healthy and delicious meals for your family,” Stone says.

Clinic interns have created sample three-day meal plans (PDF) to feed a family of four without the use of power or refrigeration, including desserts and energy bars.

Hurricane Sandy: State by state preparations

Resource: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/29/health/hurricane-power-outage/index.html