New York will have the most intense storm surge if Sandy comes ashore anywhere in New Jersey, Uccell

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KENSINGTON, Md. (AP) -- The projected storm surge from Hurricane Sandy is a "worst discount cruise package case scenario" with devastating waves and tides predicted for the highly populated New York City metro area, government forecasters said Sunday.
In this case, seas will be amped up by giant waves and full-moon-powered high tides. discount cruise package That will combine with drenching rains, triggering inland flooding as the hurricane merges with a winter storm system that will worsen it and hold it in place for days.
Louis Uccellini, discount cruise package environmental prediction chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press that given Sandy's due east-to-west track into New Jersey, that puts the worst of the storm surge just north in New York City, Long Island and northern New Jersey. "Yes, this is the worst case scenario," he said.
In a measurement discount cruise package of pure kinetic energy, NOAA's hurricane research division on Sunday ranked the surge and wave "destruction potential" for Sandy - just the hurricane, not the hybrid storm it will eventually become - at 5.8 on a 0 to 6 scale. The damage expected from winds will be far less, experts said. Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters discount cruise package says that surge destruction potential number is a record and it's due to the storm's massive size.
"You have a lot of wind acting over a long distance of water for hundreds of miles" and that piles the storm surge up when it finally comes ashore, Masters said. Even though discount cruise package it doesn't pack much power in maximum wind speed, the tremendous size of Sandy - more than 1,000 miles across with tropical storm force winds - adds to the pummelling power when it comes ashore, he said.
The storm surge energy numbers are bigger than the deadly 2005 Hurricane Katrina, but that can be misleading. discount cruise package Katrina's destruction was concentrated in a small area, making it much worse, Masters said. Sandy's storm surge energy is spread over a wider area. Also, Katrina hit a city that is below sea level and had problems with levees.
National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb said Hurricane Sandy's size means some coastal parts of New York and New Jersey may see water rise from 6 to 11 feet from surge and waves. The rest of the coast north of Virginia can expect 4 to 8 feet of surge.
"If the forecasts hold true in terms of the amount of rainfall and the amount of coastal flooding, that's going to be what drives up the losses and that's what's going to hurt," said Susan Cutter, discount cruise package director of the hazards and vulnerability research institute at the University of South Carolina.
Klaus Jacob, a Columbia University researcher who has advised the city on coastal risks, said, "We have to prepare to the extent discount cruise package we can, but I'm afraid discount cruise package that from a subway point of view, I think it's beyond sheer preparations. I do not think that there's enough emergency measures discount cruise package that will help prevent the subway discount cruise package from flooding."
A NOAA map of inland and coastal flood watches covers practically the entire Northeast: all of Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut; most of Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, and parts of northeastern Ohio, eastern Virginia, North Carolina, and western New Hampshire.
Along the mid-Atlantic coast, storm surge is already starting to build, discount cruise package Uccellini said. NOAA's Coastal Services Center chief Margaret Davidson said to expect "bodacious impacts" from both surge and inland flooding.
New York will have the most intense storm surge if Sandy comes ashore anywhere in New Jersey, Uccellini said. Only if it arrives farther south, such as Delaware, will New York see a slightly, only slightly, smaller storm surge.
In general, discount cruise package areas to the south and west of landfall will get the heaviest of rains. Some areas of Delaware and the Maryland and Virginia peninsula will see a foot of rain over the several days the storm parks in the East, Uccellini said. The rest of the mid-Atlantic region may see closer to 4 to 8 inches, discount cruise package NOAA forecasts.
The good news about inland flooding is that the rivers and ground aren't as saturated as they were last year when Hurricane Irene struck, causing nearly $16 billion in damage, much of it from inland flooding in places discount cruise package like Vermont, Uccellini and Masters said.
The storm, which threatens roughly 50 million in the eastern third of the country, began as three systems. Two of those - an Arctic blast from the north and a normal winter storm front with a low-pressure trough_ have combined. Hurricane Sandy will meld with those once it comes ashore, creating a hybrid storm with some of the nastier characteristics of a hurricane and a nor'easter, experts have said.
People in New York's Tribeca neighborhood, without power because of superstorm Sandy, wait for a chance to charge their mobile phones on an available generator setup on a sidewalk, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. Sandy, the storm that made landfall Monday, caused multiple fatalities, halted discount cruise package mass transit and cut power to more than 6 million homes and businesses. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
People take photos at water filling the Bowling Green subway station in Battery Park in New York on October 30, 2012 as New Yorkers cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The storm left large parts of New York City without power and transportation. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty discount cruise package Images
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A firefighter works to contain a fire that destroyed over 50 homes during Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 30, 2012 in the Breezy Point neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. At least 33 people were reported killed in the United States by Sandy as millions of people in the eastern United States have awoken to widespread power outages, flooded homes and downed trees. New York City was hit especially hard with wide spread power outages and significant discount cruise package flooding in parts of the city. (Spencer Platt, Getty Images)
Pleasure boats pile up 30 yards or more from the water's edge in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in the Cliffwood Beach section of Aberdeen, N.J. The storm's discount cruise package high winds and the high astronomical tide paired up to rip the boats away from their dock and deposit them on shore. discount cruise package (AP Photo/Peter Hermann, III)
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OCEAN CITY, NJ - OCTOBER 30: Residents discount cruise package survey the damage after Hurricane Sandy on October 30, 2012 in Ocean City, New Jersey. Sandy made landfall last night on the New Jersey coastline bringing heavy winds and record floodwaters. At least two dozen people were reported killed in the United States as millions of people in the eastern United States are experiencing widespread power outages, flooded homes and downed trees. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Jason Locke sweeps water and mud from his parents' home in Westport, Mass., Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. Many homeowners who suffered losses discount cruise package because of flooding from Hurricane Sandy are likely to find themselves out of luck. Standard homeowners policies don't cover flooding damage, and the vast majority of homeowners don't have flood insurance.Yet it's likely that many Northeasterners will purchase it in coming months, hoping they'll discount cruise package be covered the next time around, at a cost averaging around $600 a year. (AP Photo/The Standard Times, Peter Pereira)
The tailend of a SUV is perched on top of a postal mailbox in the aftermath of floods from Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in Coney Island, N.Y. Sandy, the storm that made landfall Monday, caused multiple fatalities, halted mass transit and cut power to more than 6 million homes and businesses. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
HUNTINGTON, NY - OCTOBER 30: Power lines rest at a 45 degree angle on Clinton Avenue in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on October 30, 2012 in Huntington, New York. The storm has claimed discount cruise package at least a few dozen lives in the United States, and has caused massive flooding across much of the Atlantic seaboard. U.S. President Barack Obama has declared the situation a 'major disaster' for large areas of the U.S. east coast, including New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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