Superstorm Sandy took aim at New York's waterfront with fierce rain and winds that shuttered most of the nation's largest city Monday darkened the financial district.
The threat of a record 13-foot storm surge inundating downtown Manhattan prompted officials to close the mass transit system and cut power pre-emptively to parts of downtown Manhattan to avoid damage from incoming seawater.
The lower Manhattan seawall was lapped over by water earlier, about ankle-deep, as officials anxiously awaited high tide. Water began pooling in rail yards and on highways near the Hudson River waterfront on Manhattan's far west side.
On coastal Long Island, floodwaters swamped cars, downed trees and put neighborhoods under water as beachfronts and fishing villages bore the brunt of the storm. A police car was lost rescuing 14 people from the popular resort Fire Island.
CBS News hurricane consultant David Bernard said the Long Island Sound could see some of the most devastating storm surge.
The storm had only killed one New Yorker by Monday night, a man who died when a tree fell on his home in the Flushing section of Queens.
The collapsed crane suspended over midtown caused the evacuation of hundreds from a posh hotel and other buildings. Inspectors were climbing 74 flights of stairs to examine it. Meteorologists said the winds could have been close to 95 mph at the top of the $1.5 billion building when the crane tipped.
The facade of a four-story Manhattan building in the Chelsea neighborhood crumbled and collapsed suddenly, leaving the lights, couches, cabinets and desks inside visible from the street. No one was hurt, although some of the falling debris hit a car.
The city closed its subways, schools, stock exchanges, Broadway theaters and shut several bridges and tunnels throughout the day as the weather worsened. Late Monday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey closed LaGuardia Airport, although major carriers had cancelled all their flights hours earlier.
Consolidated Edison cut power pre-emptively to parts of Manhattan bordered by the Brooklyn Bridge and the East River, trying to lessen damage to underground equipment from the massive storm, spokesman Chris Olert said. About 6,500 customers lost power, he said; the utility reported more than 65,000 outages from the storm in the city and suburban Westchester County.
Earlier, some New Yorkers defiantly soldiered on, trying to salvage normal routines and refusing to evacuate, as the mayor ordered 376,000 in low-lying areas to do.
Mark Vial pushed a stroller holding his 2-year-old daughter Maziyar toward his apartment building in Battery Park City, an area that was ordered evacuated.
However, by early evening, the water in New York Harbor was rising and winds sent a trash can blowing down the street in Battery Park City. Brian Damianakes, 47, took shelter in an ATM vestibule.
"I decided to go for a run about five minutes ago but now I'm thinking maybe not," he said. "Now it's really turning into something."
Flooding from Sandy inundated the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel with water.
On New York's Long Island, floodwaters had begun to deluge some low-lying towns and nearly 150,000 customers had lost power. Cars floated along the streets of Long Beach and flooding consumed several blocks south of the bay, residents said.
In the fishing village of Greenport, Sean Seal piled dirt and sandbags onto the alleyway behind his collectibles store where the water was steadily creeping up the street toward his front door. He only opened the shop about two months ago.
"We put everything up. Up on tables, up on shelves, as far as we could," he said. "It's gonna be devastating. We'll lose a lot of stuff."
Anoush Vargas drove with her husband, Michael to the famed Jones Beach Monday morning, only to find it covered by water.
"We have no more beach. It's gone," she said, shaking her head as she watched the waves go under the boardwalk.
The center the storm, a combination of Sandy, a wintry system from the West and cold air streaming from the Arctic, was expected to hit the city under a full moon later Monday night. Surging waters of between 6 and 11 feet could flood subway tunnels, knock out the underground network of power, phone and high-speed Internet lines that are the lifeblood of America's financial capital.



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