Hurricane Sandy, now a category 2 storm, pummelled Bahamas Thursday night with violent winds and torrential rains after claiming 21 lives in the Caribbean including 11 in Cuba.
Sandy lashed Jamaica and eastern Cuba with ferocious wind and heavy rains and went on to wreak havoc in the Bahamas and Haiti bringing down power lines, destroying hundreds of homes and ruining crops.
As the hurricane moves toward the U.S. east coast, forecasters feel that Sandy may pose a bigger danger than Hurricane Irene did last year. Forecasters warned that Sandy could swipe much of the U.S. east coast beginning late Thursday in Florida with flooding, heavy rains and high winds. As the day nears for the final preparations of the Presidential elections on Nov. 6, Sandy would reach the New England where Irene caused severe damage last year.
"Disaster experts and meteorologists warn that the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states face dangerous winds and heavy rains that could trigger flooding in the coming days," Reuters reported.
There are increasing concerns that "Sandy could join with another storm approaching from the west, a "nor'easter" that was going to strike somewhere around New York City and New England next week anyway, hurricane or not," the report said.
If that happens, the effects will be much worse and will be feld along the entire Atlantic Coast from Florida to Maine and inland to Ohio. Hurricane Irene is ranked as one of the ten costliest hurricanes ever as it caused $4.3 billion in damage.
The hurricane's center was about 105 miles east of the Bahamas capital of Nassau by Thursday evening as it spun between Cat Island and Eleuthera in the central Bahamas. Sandy had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph, down slightly from earlier in the day, and was moving north-northwest at 17 mph.
