Millions at risk of flooding from Hurricane Sandy

Terra Daily via AFP: Millions of people are at risk of life-threatening flooding when Hurricane Sandy plows into the northeastern US, the director of the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. "The system is so large that I would say millions of people are at least in areas that have some chance of experiencing either flash flooding or river flooding," Rick Knabb told reporters during a telephone conference call.

He also said the storm could produce peak surges at high tide of six to 11 feet in the Long Island Sound, NY Harbor, Raritan Bay, a swath of the most heavily populated portions of the US coastline. "Don't focus on the fact that this is a category one hurricane," he said, referring to the Sandy's current low rating on the five-rung Saffir-Simpson scale.

"The storm surge threat for a large area is a life-threatening hazard," he emphasized. NHC forecaster Todd Kimberlain said the storm has the potential to break a number of different records. "I think it's fair to say it would be up there. If it's not historic it would be near historic," he told AFP....

A woman walking her dog through the flood waters in East River Park in Manhattan's East Village after Hurricane Irene, August 2011. Shot by David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license