New York's longest night: Manhattan goes dark, 6 MILLION without power and 14 dead as Sandy throws 13 foot wall of water at US
Frantic: Paramedics evacuate patients from New York University Tisch Hospital after a power outage left 5.7million people in the dark
Concerns: Medics help a patient into an ambulance during an evacuation of NYU Tisch Hospital, after its backup generator failed
Red alert: Emergency vehicles snake around a corner outside the NYU Medical Center
Painstaking care: Ambulances line up outside Tisch as doctors and nurses begin the slow process of taking people out

hurricane hit the mainland at 6.30pm local time last night (11:30pm GMT), having laid waste to large parts of the coast throughout the day. New York city shut its mass transit system, schools, the stock exchange and Broadway and ordered hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to leave home to get out of the way of Sandy as it zeroed in on the largest city in the US. a 13 foot wall of water caused by the storm surge and high tides caused floodwater to rush into the Hoboken PATH train station in New Jersey. Power was cut across lower Manhattan in a bid to minimise damage to infrastructure

Howling: Conditions in New Jersey deteriorate as the superstorm makes landfall, causing widespread destruction

Slammed: People take shelter on the flooded pier as the effects of Hurricane Sandy are felt in Rockaway Beach, New York

Emergency: Braving horrendous conditions, a worker uses a chainsaw to cut up a felled tree that knocked over a street light in York City, Pennsylvania, as Superstorm Sandy continues on its path

Ground Zero: The construction site at Ground Zero is inundated by flood waters in Lower Manhattan

Power out: Lower Manhattan goes dark as Hurricane Sandy sweeps across America's East Coast, causing untold damage and putting lives at risk

Submerged: Cars disappear from view as water rises in New York's flood-hit financial district, which lay in Hurricane Sandy's path

Submerged: Water from Manhattan's East River floods East 20th Street during Hurricane Sandy

Dangerous: A woman wades through the water in New York as cars become submerged in the floods

Floods: Vehicles are submerged during a storm surge near the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in New York

Dramatic: A CCTV monitor shows floodwater rushing into the subway system in New York as Hurricane Sandy causes widespread devastation

Waves in the city: Streets are flooded under the Manhattan Bridge in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, New York

Waterproofs: Wearing wellington boots and a hooded jacket, a resident navigates the flooded streets of the Dumbo neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York
Sandy had laid waste to large parts of the coast throughout the day, leaving more than two million without power in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia while whole cities have been flooded and billions of dollars of damage expected.
But as darkness fell, Sandy was about to make landfall at Cape May, New Jersey. Winds rose up to 90mph with fresh warnings that the 'most severe part of the storm is now beginning'.
Storm surges of more than 12ft have already been recorded in Long Island, with waters rising quickly in Lower Manhattan as high tide approaches. Howling winds of 100mph have been reported on the RFK Bridge in upper Manhattan as gales were expected to last for hours.

A below-ground carpark in the Financial District of New York floods as waters rushes into the garage
All Broadway shows had been cancelled on Monday evening.
Utilities company ConEd had called customers to warn it will shut off power lines across Manhattan and Brooklyn, meaning millions more will be affected.
Consolidated Edison spokesman Chris Olert said on Monday evening that the power was out for most of Manhattan south of 26th Street.
On the east side, the power outage extended from 29th Street south. There were some scattered areas that still had electricity.
Olert said the damage stemmed from flooding and the probable loss of a transmission feeder.
The power outage was separate from a planned power cut that Con Ed did in certain lower Manhattan neighborhoods to protect underwater systems from flood damage.
Olert said there were 250,000 customers without power in Manhattan. A customer represents a single meter, so the number of people actually affected is likely higher.
The company shut off power in 200,000 homes in the area in last year's Hurricane Irene - but this year's storm packs a much fiercer punch.
Atlantic City officials were trying to rescue around 500 people trapped in their homes during the direct hit. Most of the city's 40,000 residents had evacuated as directed.

Concern: Governor Andrew Cuomo (centre) inspects a deluge of water flooding the Battery Tunnel in Manhattan as Hurricane Sandy approaches New York

Crash: A fallen tree with its roots ripped from the road and a power line lie over homes on Harvard Street in Garden City, New York

Here it comes! Hurricane Sandy barrels into Cape May, New Jersey today

Ferocious: The storm kicks off in Southampton, New York today as the brutal weather conditions bear down on the East Coast

Saved: An elderly man is rescued by volunteer firemen in West Atlantic City, New Jersey, as the hurricane causes colossal damage to East Coast towns and cities

All along the waterfront: A police car patrols the waterfront in Brooklyn, New York this evening as Sandy batters the Big Apple

Here it comes: The waves rise in Edgewater, New Jersey as Hurricane Sandy lashes the East Coast

Landfall: Ocean waves kick up near homes along Peggoty Beach in Scituate, Massachusetts

Making waves: Heavy surf crashes over a seawall during the early stages of Hurricane Sandy in Kennebunk, Maine

Threatening: Rising water from the Hudson River overtakes a bank drive-through in Edgewater, New Jersey

Vicious: Waves crash against a previously damaged pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey before landfall of Hurricane Sandy before flooding communities

Wide open: A row of houses stands in floodwaters at Grassy Sound in North Wildwood, New Jersey as Hurricane Sandy pounds the East Coast

Taken off: A trampoline becomes caught in the power lines on Norman Drive in Long Island as Hurricane Sandy gathers speed

Beached: A boat washes ashore on Carson Beach as wind and waves from Hurricane Sandy hit the north-east coast of the US





