Sandy still packs wind, rain & snow; Damage will take days to fully assess

Landfall Sandy made landfall Monday evening near Atlantic City, NJ

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Record storm surge flooding & damaging wind gusts

ABC Action 6 News

From New Jersey to NYC, Sandy's powerful storm surge reached record levels.

50% of Hoboken, NJ is "under water" as of early Monday AM according to the Mayor.

Details on a few of Sandy's impacts from NHC:

NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICE TIDE GAUGES HAVE RECENTLY REPORTED STORM TIDE HEIGHT...THE COMBINATION OF STORM SURGE AND TIDE RELATIVE TO MEAN LOWER LOW WATER...OF 13.3 FEET AT KINGS POINT NEW YORK...13.7 FEET AT THE BATTERY NEW YORK...AND 13.3 FEET AT SANDY HOOK NEW JERSEY.

A WIND GUST TO 79 MPH WAS REPORTED AT JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN NEW YORK. A WIND GUST TO 90 MPH WAS REPORTED EARLIER THIS EVENING AT ISLIP NEW YORK.

New York City Disaster:

Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy was every bit as bad as meteorologists advertised.

The record storm surge in New York has inundated major parts of the city.

Streets, power plants, subways and commuter tunnels under water. Much of lower Manhattan plunged into darkness as explosions rock a power station.

It will take much of Tuesday and maybe much longer than that to fully assess the damage, and begin to understand the impact and longer term consequences of this historic storm.

6 million (and counting) are without power that will take many days to restore.

800,000+ without power on Long Island alone

Storm sinks HMS Bounty: Dramatic Coast Guard rescue

The storm took the HMS Bounty 90 miles off the Carolina Coast Monday.

Here are the amazing details and rescue video from the U.S. Coast Guard.

In the first major U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue operation associated with Hurricane Sandy, the Coast Guard has rescued 14 people from life rafts in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C. The search continues for two people who remain missing from the crew of HMS Bounty.

The owner of the 180-foot, three-mast tall ship HMS Bounty, a replica of the original British transport vessel built for the 1962 film "Mutiny on the Bounty" starring Marlon Brando, contacted Coast Guard Sector North Carolina after losing communication with the crew late Sunday evening. The 5th Coast Guard District command center in Portsmouth, Va., subsequently received a signal from the emergency distress position indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB, registered to the Bounty confirming the distress and position.

Records fall:

It will take a while to get final numbers, but Sandy appears to have set many storm related records including:

940 millibars Lowest observed barometer for any storm North of the Carolinas

13.88 feet storm surge driven record water level at Battery Park in NYC

Unprecedented track and intensification for a storm so late in season

Hurricane done, Sandy not:

Sandy is not over. The major coastal surge and flooding will ease, but the giant swirl of wind, rain and snow will continue to cause some damage Tuesday, and possibly into Wednesday.

Image: http://hint.fm/wind/

- Blizzard Warnings with 3 to 4 foot snowfall totals will rage Tuesday in the Appalachians.

-Gale Warnings and Lakeshore Flood Warnings continue for Chicago and the southern end of Lake Michigan for waves as high as 33 feet. A major "sieche" will drive water to the south end of the lake.

-Lakeshore Flood Warnings are also flying for northern Ohio.

Tropical storm force winds with gusts to 60 mph will cover much of the NE USA Tuesday.

The slowly weakening storm will linger in the northeast through Halloween.

Stay tuned as we see what Sandy has in store Tuesday...and beyond.

PH