Hurricane Sandy is slooooowly marching northward, off the coast of the Carolinas.
Early Monday, the storm is forecast to hang a left — thankfully, missing us here in Hampton Roads — and to make landfall somewhere along the Jersey Shore sometime overnight Monday night/Tuesday morning.
By that time, however, the storm is supposed to merge with a cold front that’s been pushing across the country. You can see it beginning to merge in these satellite photos from NOAA and NASA’s GOES satellite. The photo on the left was from Friday. The one on the right was shortly ago.
The merging of these two storm will create the dreaded “Frankenstorm.” Will will add snow and ice to the mix.
Plus, the storm will slow down quite a bit, seeming to hover over Pennsylvania for a bit. Because, y’know, the folks in Pennsylvania just can’t get enough rain and snow.
In the meantime, though, folks along the coast are worried enough with just the tropical part of the storm. Storm surge here in Hampton Roads tomorrow morning — combined with the effects of the full moon — will push water up a good three feet higher than usual. Officials in Norfolk and Portsmouth are preparing for flooding. And folks along the coast in Jersey and Connecticut are very worried — and rightfully so — about the surge up that way. Estimates are about 16 feet of storm surge in Connecticut. Which would be disastrous.
Here in the southern part of Virginia Beach — a good five or six miles from the shore — the winds continue to increase. A TV report a few minutes ago said that gusts were up to 44 mph. We’ve alternated between light rain and moderate rain all day. In fact, at this very moment, I have the window of my office open.
I expect I’ll have to close that by dusk, however. The winds continue to get stronger.
School has been canceled here already, so neither my wife, Sharon — a special ed teacher at an elementary school — or my daughter, Elizabeth — a student at Tidewater Community College — will have to leave the house tomorrow morning, when we’re expecting the worst of it.
The Apple household is not really in danger of flooding, however. The biggest concern we have: Increasing winds can blow over trees with root systems weakened by all the rain. And that could take out some power lines.
It’s the residents of points north of here — Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut — you need to be concerned about.
With that in mind…
The theme that seemed to run through most of today’s Sandy front pages was making preparations for the storm. Here’s a look at the day’s ten most interesting, as seen at the Newseum…
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DAILY RECORD
Parsippany, N.J.
Circulation: 19,509
The paper in Parsippany, N.J., led today with a picture of a man selling portable generators.
Folks up that way remember only too well how long it took to get power restored after Hurricane Irene last August. Never again, right?
The picture is by Daily Record staffer Meghan Van Dyk.
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ASBURY PARK PRESS
Neptune, N.J.
Circulation: 98,032
Many residents in Sandy’s path are worried about flooding. The remedy: Sandbags. And lots of ‘em. Here, contractors wrap sandbags around a bank in Lavallette, N.J.
The picture is by staffer Thomas P. Costello. The nice map showing projected rainfall totals…
…is from the Associated Press.
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BALTIMORE SUN
Baltimore, Md.
Circulation: 179,574
The Baltimore Sun today led with a picture of folks sandbagging a local dance studio.
The picture is by staffer Kim Hairston.
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VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Norfolk, Va.
Circulation: 142,476
And in Virginia, the Pilot played this great shot of a cute four-year-old girl and her cute puppy playing atop sandbags at their front door in Ocean View, along the Chesapeake Bay.
The photo is by Ross Taylor.
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THE DAY
New London, Conn.
Circulation: 32,779
The New London, Conn., paper built page one around a photo of a man boarding up his store in Watch Hill, R.I.
The picture is by staffer Dana Jensen.
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DELAWARE STATE NEWS
Dover, Del.
Circulation: 15,950
And while I don’t care much for the design of this page, this headline made me smile.
All we need now is a pair of parachute pants.
The picture is by State News staffer Dave Chambers.
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STAR-LEDGER
Newark, N.J.
Circulation: 278,940
The Newark paper today focused on a local woman who is still recovering from Irene, 14 months ago.
The picture is by staffer Saed Hindash.
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PATRIOT-NEWS
Harrisburg, Pa.
Circulation: 70,446
In Harrisburg — where there has been so much flooding over the past year or two — the Patriot-News led today with a picture of waves pounding a pier in Nags Head, N.C.
The picture is by Gerry Broome of the Associated Press. The Sandy track map is from MCT.
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DAILY PRESS
Newport News, Va.
Circulation: 57,642
And across the James River from here, the Daily Press of Newport News scored another terrific page-one photo — this one of a six-year-old kid playing on a jetty near Yorktown while his dad fishes.
That was yesterday, of course. I doubt he’d be out there today. Conditions are much worse.
The picture is by staffer Kaitlin McKeown.
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NEW YORK POST
New York, N.Y.
Circulation: 555,327
And the very model of calm — the New York Post — added its two cents to the story today.
I’m mildly surprised the Post didn’t find some way of blaming the storm on the President.
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Again, these pages are all from the Newseum. Of course.
Previous posts on this topic:
- Friday, Oct. 26: How East-coast newspapers played the ‘Frankenstorm’ today
- Saturday, Oct. 27: Today’s eight best ‘Frankenstorm’ Hurricane Sandy front pages
