For days, government and emergency management officials have been pleading with residents to be prepared, take precautions and heed warnings concerning a superstorm approaching the Mid-Atlantic coastline in the U.S.
The storm has made a left turn and is now headed towards the east coast.
Hundreds of thousands have already evacuated their homes where forecasters said Hurricane Sandy was likely to collide with a cold front and spawn a "superstorm" that could generate flash floods, snowstorms and massive power outages.
Hurricane Sandy has already claimed at least 67 lives as it smashed through the Caribbean last week.
"It could be bad," said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Rattior, "or it could be devastation."
Some 50 million people from Virginia to Massachusetts are expected to feel the effect of Sandy, whose hurricane-force winds span roughly 175 miles out from either side of the eye of the storm while tropical force winds extend 485 miles out from either side of the eye of the storm.
At the 5 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Sandy, a Category 1 hurricane, was 385 miles south-southeast of New York City and moving at about 15 mph.