Widespread grid failures expected as tempest threatens to bring high winds, rain. Forecasters warned that the New York City region could face the worst of Hurricane Sandy as it bore down on the US Eastern Coast’s largest cities on Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds, rain and a wall of water up to 11 feet tall. Sandy strengthened before dawn on Monday and stayed on a predicted path toward New York, Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia putting it on a collision course with two other weather systems that would create a superstorm with the potential to cause havoc over 1,280 kilometers from the East Coast to the Great Lakes. Up to three feet of snow were even forecast for mountainous parts of West Virginia. The weather phenomenon could endanger up to 50 million people for days. Airports closed, and authorities warned that the time for evacuation was running out or already past. Many workers planned to stay home as subways, buses and trains shut down across the region under the threat of flooding that could inundate tracks and tunnels. Utilities anticipated widespread power failures. The centre of the storm was positioned to come ashore Monday night in New Jersey, meaning the worst of the surge could be in the northern part of that state and in New York City and on Long Island. Higher tides brought by a full moon compounded the threat to the metropolitan area of about 20 million people. “This is the worstcase scenario,” said Louis Uccellini, environmental prediction chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As rain from the leading edges began to fall over the Northeast on Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland to Connecticut were ordered to leave low-lying coastal areas, including 3,75,000 in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York City, 50,000 in Delaware and 30,000 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the city’s 12 casinos shut down for only the fourth time ever. President Barack Obama declared emergencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, authorising federal relief work to begin well ahead of time. He promised the government would “respond big and respond fast” after the storm hits. Obama cancelled a campaign appearance in Florida to stay in Washington and monitor the storm, with Election Day just a week away. Authorities warned that New York could get hit with a surge of seawater that could swamp parts of lower Manhattan, flood subway tunnels and cripple the network of electrical and communications lines. STOCK MARKETS SHUT Major US financial markets, including New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq planned a rare shutdown on Monday. The United Nations headquarters also shut down. New York shut down all train, bus and subway service Sunday night. More than 5 million riders a day depend on the transit system. Airlines canceled nearly 7,500 flights and Amtrak began suspending train service across the Northeast. US President Barack Obama with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator William Craig Fugate at a briefing about Hurricane Sandy, as it threatens the American east coast