Superstorm Sandy's wrath: Deaths, flooding, outages – and no end in sight

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Superstorm Sandy's wrath: Deaths, flooding, outages – and no end in sight

Editor's Note: A true picture of Sandy's wrath won't be apparent until daylight Tuesday, but every passing hour is bringing fresh reports of damages from the destructive superstorm. The storm has already claimed 13 lives in the United States and left untold number in flooded homes and without power from South Carolina to Maine. Here is the full story. 

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Here are the latest developments:

[Update 2:02 a.m.] 6,535,896: That's the number of customers without power across 13 states and Washington D.C.

[Update 1:57 a.m.] The 2 a.m. advisory is out: Superstorm Sandy continues to pack hurricane force winds more than five hours after making landfall along the coast of southern New Jersey, according to the 2 a.m. ET advisory from the National Weather Service. The system is centered about 10 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

[Update 1:38 a.m.] The U.S. death toll from Sandy now stands at 13 after police in Pennsylvania said an 8-year-old boy died Monday after he was struck by a tree limb in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.

[Update 1:32 a.m.] New power outage numbers: 5.5 million customers in 13 states and Washington D.C., according to a CNN tally.

[Update 1:27 a.m.] Now come the blizzards. The National Weather Service says a blizzard spawned by Sandy will bring 2 to 3 feet of snow to the mountains of West Virginia, with 1 to 2 feet expected to fall in Southwestern Virginia. Another 12 to 18 inches of snow will fall in the mountains near the Tennessee-North Carolina border.

[Update 1:22 a.m.] Reporter Jeff Pegues with CNN affiliate WABC says the howling winds and rising waters of Sandy shorted out power lines and sparked a major fire in the Rockaway Park area of Queens Monday evening, according to firefighters.

[Update 1:15 a.m.] NYU Langone Medical Center says backup power to the facility has failed. The hospital is evacuating all patients now. Earlier, it had said it was evacuating nearly all.

[Update 1:03 a.m.] The rain will continue and "the winds are still going to be howling” overnight, says CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera.  “We’re tracking a hurricane and a blizzard all at the same time.” The blizzard in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia will last 36 hours.

[Update 1:03 a.m.] Trillian Media captured this explosion at a Con Edison power plant Monday evening, that plunged many New Yorkers in the dark. The explosion happens around 18 seconds - and you can see parts of the city slowly go dark.

[Update 12:51 a.m.] More than 99 blood drives in the Northeast have been canceled due to Sandy. This is likely to create a blood shortage in the Northeast as emergency crews work to help those injured. To help with the anticipated shortage, the Red Cross is encouraging people throughout the country to donate blood. People can also donate $10  to disaster relief efforts by texting REDCROSS to 90999, or they can contribute online at www.redcross.org. “We are expecting to been a very long and difficult situation,” said spokeswoman Kristiana Almeida.

[Update 12:51 a.m.]  An ominous tweet from the Connecticut emergency management department:

Source : CNN (blog) - http://news.blogs.cnn.com