Sandy forces Filipinos to flee homes
This photo provided by 6abc Action News shows the Inlet section of Atlantic City, New Jersey, as Hurricane Sandy makes it approach, Monday. AP/6abc Action News
MANILA, Philippines—An undetermined number of Filipino-Americans fled their homes as Superstorm “Sandy” slammed into the New Jersey coastline and hurled a record-breaking 13-foot surge of seawater at New York City on Monday (Tuesday in Manila).
Sandy knocked out power to at least 3.1 million people, including thousands of Filipinos in Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine and Ohio, the Philippine embassy in Washington said. Authorities said the power outage could last several days.
New York’s main utility said large sections of Manhattan had been plunged into darkness by the storm, with 250,000 customers without power as water pressed into the island from three sides, flooding rail yards, subway tracks, tunnels and roads.
At least 10 deaths were blamed on the storm but Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia said no Filipinos have been reported killed or injured. The 10 deaths were in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Police in Toronto said a woman was killed by a falling sign as high winds closed in on Canada’s largest city.
Just before its center reached land, the storm was stripped of hurricane status, but the distinction was purely technical, based on its shape and internal temperature. It still packed hurricane-force wind, and forecasters were careful to say it remained every bit as dangerous to the 50 million people in its path. By late night, the center of the storm was over southern New Jersey.
The National Hurricane Center announced at 8 p.m. that Sandy had come ashore near Atlantic City. It smacked the boarded-up big cities of the Northeast corridor, from Washington and Baltimore to Philadelphia, New York and Boston, with stinging rain and gusts of more than 135 kph. The sea surged a record of nearly 13 feet at the foot of Manhattan, flooding the financial district and subway tunnels.
Cuisia said reports from the Filipino community indicated that a number of compatriots in New Jersey and New York fled their homes due to floodwaters that the superstorm spawned shortly before it made landfall Monday evening near Cape May in the southern coast of New Jersey.
Also an undetermined number of Filipinos have been affected by flood waters in Atlantic City, Jersey City, Keansburg and New Milford in New Jersey and in Inwood in Long Island, New York, he said, citing reports received by the embassy.
But while a number of Filipinos evacuated others could not leave their homes, Cuisia said.
Earlier, the embassy issued an advisory, urging Filipinos living in Ohio and Michigan to take the necessary precautions as Sandy was expected to bring strong winds and high waves in the Great Lakes region.
He said both the embassy and the Consulate General in New York remained in touch with Filipino community leaders to check on the situation of the more than 460,000 Filipinos in 13 states across the eastern seaboard that bore the brunt of the hurricane.
Cuisia said a team was on 24-hour-standby at the embassy to respond to any request for assistance from Filipinos affected by the typhoon, monitor the progress of the storm, and receive updates from the Filipino Community.
He said Filipinos who may require assistance may call the the Embassy in Washington D.C. at 202-368-2767 or the Consulate General in New York at 917-294-0196. With Associated Press
