Latest on Hurricane Sandy and its impact on the East Coast

At 1:30pm Saturday afternoon FEMA, the National Hurricane Center and the National Center for Environmental Prediction held a media press conference regarding Hurricane Sandy and its significant impact on the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Here are some highlights from the conference call:



Craig Fugate (Director of FEMA): 
-This is a complex storm and will cover a large geographic area. 
-Preparations are currently taking place for coastal surge, flooding (both coastal and inland), massive power outages and even winter weather further west.
-There are a variety of hazards that will occur with this storm and teams are being put in place to help when necessary
-Extensive wide spread power outages due to wind from the trees coming down - not necessarily from structural damage

Dr. Rick Knabb (Director of NHC):
-Right now Sandy is a Category One hurricane off the southeast coast
-A significant change in intensity is not expected prior to landfall
-Looking at an impact somewhere along the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coast from Monday evening to early Tuesday morning
-Weather conditions will begin to go downhill from Virginia northward through Connecticut and because this is a very large system the weather conditions will begin to deteriorate well in advance of the storm making landfall
-The storm system is expected to slow down once making landfall and will continue into Tuesday night and Wednesday as it moves further inland and because of this the impacts from the system will extend for a longer period of time
-Not only will coastal storm surge and flooding be a concern but the potential for inland flooding due to heavier rainfall is also a big concern from Maryland to Pennsylvania
-We are expecting this storm to make a transition from a tropical system to a non-tropical system or post-tropical system while still out in open waters or right before landfall.  This is why Tropical Storm Warnings and Hurricane Warnings do not extend further north than the Carolinas.  We don't want to confuse the public with the warning of this storm. 
-Local National Weather Service offices are handling the watches/warnings at the local level and have already issued flood watches/warnings - coastal concerns for their coverage area

Dr. Louis Uccellini (Director of NCEP):
-50 to 60 million people possibly affected from storm
-We are near certain this storm will make landfall somewhere between the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast as a Post-Tropical Storm
-There will be intense winds on the coast ahead of the storm and the eastern 1/3 of the country will be affected - but also strong winds will impact the Ohio River Valley and the Eastern Great Lakes
-The potential for 5" to 8", or higher, of rainfall will likely occur north and northwest of the system further away from the coast
-There is also a winter threat once the colder air from the west hits the system with heavy snow in West Virginia
-It's possible snowfall totals could exceed two feet with the axis of the heaviest snow from West Virginia into the mountains of West North Carolina
-We don't try to make comparisons to previous storms with similar characteristics until the event has passed because while there may be some meteorological aspects that are the same, each storm is different and we shouldn't try to compare one storm to the next.  For example - the Perfect Storm of 1991