FRANKENSTORM - Brooklyn Battery TUNNEL FLOODING, Sandy Paralyses NEW YORK CITY

Hurricane Sandy, reclassified as a post-tropical cyclone and described as a superstorm, ploughed inland overnight, dumping heavy wet snow over parts of the Appalachian mountains and leaving New York City paralysed and darkened in its wake.

Ten states had been declared states of emergency by the time the storm's record 3.4-metre surge began to recede at midnight. An estimated 5 million people were without power, 16 people were reported dead. Another 67 people had been killed earlier as the storm boiled through the Caribbean.

''It's really a complete ghost town now,'' a New Yorker, Stephen Weisbrot, told Politico from a powerless 10th-floor apartment in lower Manhattan.

The New York Fire Department was forced to use boats to evacuate people in Staten Island, while the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, called on people not to call 911 unless their lives werLast night, more than 200 firefighters were tackling a huge blaze in Queens that had destroyed more than 50 homes.

The storm left New York's airports, schools, universities, businesses and stock exchanges closed as well as major roads and regional trains.

The surge flooded New York's subway system and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. All the bridges to Manhattan were closed to traffic, as were all but one tunnel.

As the water rose, three explosions rang out in Manhattan, thought to be electricity transformers blowing up. Authorities had to evacuate 200 patients after back-up power failed at the New York University hospital.

The power company Consolidated Edison confirmed it had cut off power to parts of Manhattan to protect its infrastructure. A company representative told CNN the storm had ''completely inundated'' the electricity system.

The company said power could be out for up to a week in parts of New York, while residents across the broader region were warned to expect blackouts lasting up to 10 days. Atlantic City remained under a curfew overnight and parts of its famous boardwalk had been swept away by the surge.

In Washington DC, government offices were closed. The President, Barack Obama, and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, suspended their campaigns, with Mr Obama returning to the White House to oversee the emergency response. Mr Romney announced he would attend a storm relief event in Ohio tomorrow. Early voting was cancelled across the region.

The Connecticut Governor, Dannel Molloy, described the storm as the most ''catastrophic event'' to hit the region in a lifetime.

The storm, which met and married two cold fronts as it made landfall at 8pm, dumped rain on an area stretching from South Carolina up to Canada, affecting 60 million people. Hurricane-force winds reached up to 280km/h near the centre and trees, in sodden ground, continued falling through the night, loosened by the high winds.

Because the cold fronts have slowed the movement of the storm, most of the areas hardest hit were expected to keep experiencing high winds on Tuesday, slowing the emergency response.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is monitoring the storm after a New Jersey power plant issued a standard alert triggered by water rising around the plant's intake structure.

The first US victims of the storm were the crew of HMS Bounty replica tall ship - one dead, one missing - that was sunk on Monday morning.

Two people were killed in Connecticut, including a firefighter who died when a tree fell on his truck. Three people died in Pennsylvania, including an 8-year-old boy hit by a tree limb.

There were at least five deaths reported in New York State, three in New Jersey and one in both Maryland and West Virginia.

Mr Bloomberg confirmed fallen live wires had sparked other fires throughout the city.

A facade crumbled from a four-storey building in Chelsea, a high-rise crane, operated by Australian company Lend Lease, was left dangling over the city and a fire station had to be evacuated by boat.

Read more: [ Ссылка ] threatened. He advised people caught in flooded houses to move to higher rooms and wait until morning for help.

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