In Picture: Superstorm Sandy Slams New Jersey Coast, Sends 13 Feet Surge In NYC

Sea water floods the Ground Zero construction site, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Sandy continued on its path Monday, as the storm forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds and soaking rain. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo)

Superstorm Sandy made landfall at 8 p.m. just south of Atlantic City, about 120 miles southwest of Manhattan which was already mostly under water while its world-famous Boardwalk was washed away earlier in the day.

It slammed into the New Jersey coastline with 80 mph winds Monday night and hurled an unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater at New York City.

At least 10 U.S. deaths and one death in Canada were blamed on the storm.

It was a very big storm that an AccuWeather meteorologist said Sandy “is unfolding as the Northeast’s Katrina”.

Authorities reported a record surge more than 13 feet high at the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan, from the storm and high tide combined.

The center the storm, a combination of Sandy, a wintry system from the West and cold air streaming from the Arctic, threatened to knock out the underground network of power, phone and high-speed Internet lines that are the lifeblood of America’s financial capital.

The New York Daily News reported that water was six feet deep outside its offices in lower Manhattan.

City officials evacuated neighbors of a 90-story super luxury apartment building under construction after its crane partially collapsed in high winds, prompting fears the entire rig could crash to the ground.

Firefighters look up at a partially collapsed crane hanging from a high-rise building in Manhattan as Hurricane Sandy makes its approach in New York October 29, 2012. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Serious flooding was also reported miles north in Greenwich Village and Chelsea.

The facade of a four-story Manhattan building in the Chelsea neighborhood crumbled and collapsed suddenly, leaving the lights, couches, cabinets and desks inside visible from the street.

No one was hurt, although some of the falling debris hit a car.

The facade of a four-story building on 14th Street and 8th Avenue collapsed onto the sidewalk as FDNY firefighters respond, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Hurricane Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard’s largest cities Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet tall. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo)

An historic ferry boat named the Binghamton is swamped by the waves of the Hudson River in Edgewater, N.J., Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy lashes the East Coast. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Streets are flooded under the Manhattan Bridge in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Michael Wirtz, of Wilmington, Del., braves flood waters and high winds that arrive with Hurricane Sandy along North Michigan Avenue in Atlantic City, N.J., Monday Oct. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/The Press of Atlantic City, Michael Ein)

Storm surf kicked up by the high winds from Hurricane Sandy break onto homes in Southampton, New York, October 29, 2012. Hurricane Sandy, the monster storm bearing down on the East Coast, strengthened on Monday after hundreds of thousands moved to higher ground, public transport shut down and the stock market suffered its first weather-related closure in 27 years. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Sailboats rock in choppy water at a dock along the Hudson River Greenway during a storm, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Furticella)

A man reacts to waves crashing over a seawall in Narragansett, R.I., Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. A fast-strengthening Hurricane Sandy churned north Monday, raking ghost-town cities along the Northeast corridor with rain and wind gusts. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Storm surf kicked up by the high winds from Hurricane Sandy break onto homes in Southampton, New York October 29, 2012. Hurricane Sandy, the monster storm bearing down on the East Coast, strengthened on Monday after hundreds of thousands moved to higher ground, public transport shut down and the stock market suffered its first weather-related closure in 27 years. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Swans swim in a yard that has been flooded by storm surf kicked up by the high winds from Hurricane Sandy in Southampton, New York October 29, 2012. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Waves crash over Eric Mongirdas as the storm surge caused by Hurricane Sandy pummels the coastline in Milford, Connecticut October 29, 2012. , The monster storm bearing down on the U.S. east coast, strengthened on Monday after hundreds of thousands moved to higher ground. REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin

A woman reacts to waves crashing over a seawall in Narragansett, R.I., Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A car is submerged in the Dumbo section of the Brooklyn borough of New York, as the East River overflows during Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012. (Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo)

The Hudson River swells and rises over the banks of the Hoboken, N.J., waterfront as Hurricane Sandy approaches on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)

Related Posts:

1. NASA’s Before And After Photos Of New Jersey Coastline

2. Superstorm Sandy: Before And After Photos

1. After Sandy, A New Storm May Hit Mid-Atlantic And New England

2. In Photos: Mass Transit Damaged By Superstorm Sandy

3. Photos: Superstorm Sandy Aftermath

4. Photos: Sandy Causes Blizzards In Appalachia

5. Photos: Fire And Water Destroyed Homes In NYC’s Queens Breezy Point And Belle Harbor

6. At Least 50 Houses Flooded By Sandy Destroyed By NYC Fire

7. In Picture: Superstorm Sandy Slams New Jersey Coast, Sends 13 Feet Surge In NYC

8. Photos: Eastern US Braces For Superstorm Sandy

9. Sandy: The Largest Storm To Hit The US?

10. Photos: Hurricane Sandy Left Bahamas, 43 Killed In Caribbean

11. Hurricane Sandy Pounds Jamaica

‘100 Places to Go Before They Disappear’, A Book By Gaute Hogh

Gaute Hogh wrote a book  named, ‘100 Places to Go Before They Disappear’.

The book was about the effect of global warming that can make some places disappear.

Global warming makes the earth hotter and hotter and sea level rises up because of ice melting at the North Pole and South Pole.

In Zahara de la Sierra, Andalusia, Spain, they get less and less rain and the place becomes drier and slowly turning into a desert; like bad drought in Kenya were killing plants and animals.

I think that it is a very good book for all of us to read, so that we can do our parts to stop the global warming and heal the world.

It will very sad to see all the beautiful places disappear.

( Please click here for my post, ‘Ways To Heal Our Earth’ )

I wish I can have a copy of  ‘100 Places to Go Before They Disappear’ 🙂

Go Green!

( Please click here for my post, ‘Plea For Survival’ about the effect of global warming ).

The southern shoreline of Manhattan Island, known as the Battery, is the largest public place in downtown New York. Hundreds of thousands work nearby and over 36,000 residents live in its surrounding area. About every 100 years, the area experiences extreme flooding that reaches heights of up to 10 feet. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of winds and hurricanes and cause sea levels to rise. According to the worse-case scenario, extreme events may occur every four years by 2080, with floods raising water levels by 11-14 feet and paralyzing the whole Manhattan infrastructure. “The tidal area there with the Hudson River is a very beautiful place but it will go underwater,” Hogh warns. “There is more than 280,000 people working in this walking district.”

Esteemed as a winter wonderland, Austria and the Alpine region is Europe’s snow resort Mecca. It’s also gorgeous in summer with its evergreen pastures and cascading mountainsides, made famous by the classic Hollywood musical 'The Sound of Music.' “Everyone here in Europe is used to going there, for skiing,” Hogh explains. “They’ve been skiing there for the last 200 years and some of the country is less and less snow.They try to make snow with snow cannons. You’re not allowed to heli-ski as much anymore because of the pollution. It will go down by 80% of its normal size. Will my children be able to ski there? I don’t know.'

The Mississippi River Delta, with its rivers, marshes and barrier islands, provides a habitat for many species of birds, fish, shellfish and small mammals. At the rim of the delta, the Chandeleur Islands form a chain that acts as a buffer zone against hurricanes and storm surges for the densely populated regions of Louisiana and Mississippii. But ferocious storms, like 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, have greatly reduced the islands’ defenses. Storms and hurricanes are expected to grow even fiercer in the future with global warming, leaving the local environment and vital culture more exposed to destruction.

Stretching for 90 miles along the Californian coast midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Big Sur is arguably one of the most breathtaking landscapes in the U.S. For the last 20 years, most of California has been experiencing increased droughts with less rainfall in the spring and summer, leading to a severe escalation in the number of large wildfires. In 2008, a major fire destroyed 16 houses in Big Sur and more than 50 square miles of forest were swallowed by flames. Fires and subsequent flooding also threaten the region’s fragile access roads and infrastructure.

The first Olympic Games are believed to have been held in Olympia, Greece, in 776 B.C. The earliest evidence of building at the site is the Temple of Hera, honoring the wife of Zeus, which dates to around 600 B.C. In recent years, extremely warm and dry summers have increased the number of wildfires in Greece. Fires in 2007 severely burned the area surrounding Olympia. With temperatures projected to rise with diminishing rains, the frequency and ferocity of wildfires are expected to grow. “If you go to Olympia in Greece and you can’t see it, that will be part of our history which will disappear,” Hogh says.

Gujarat is India’s largest producer of cotton and salt and is also the birthplace of Mahatma Gahdhi. Monsoons will intensify with continued global warming, causing severe flooding and destruction in India. In 1930, Gandhi launched a campaign against the British salt tax, which had made it illegal for Indians to produce their own salt. He eventually won that fight. India is now the third biggest cotton producer in the world after the U.S. and China and the majority of its cotton comes from Gujarat.

Hogh describes Zahara de la Sierra as “a white city in this very green place.” Also known for its olive oil production, the region faces the risk of desert- ification as olive orchards face increasingly dry seasons. Due to climate change, the IPCC projects that rainfall in southern Spain will decrease by 40% by 2080. Local temperatures in the Iberian Peninsula could also spike, turning green pastures into deserts and choking agriculture.

Kauai, the fourth largest Hawaiian island, is famous for its tropical beauty and lush mountains. Global warming could disrupt its distinct “cloud forest” ecosystem, pushing life-giving moisture to higher elevations. Home to the hummingbird-like honeycreeper, a rare and colorful animal that sips nectar from flowers, this cool zone is vital to Kauai’s verdant environment. Deforestation and non-indigenous species like pigs and goats have also decimated the honeycreeper’s habitat in recent years and the bird is now in danger of going extinct.

Located between Australia and Hawaii, in one of the most remote areas of the Pacific Ocean, lies the nation of Tuvalu. Only 10-square miles – made up of tropical reef islands and narrow coral atolls encompassing blue lagoons -- Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world. Only 12,000 people inhabit the nine-island nation. At 16 feet above sea level, the country has one of the lowest maximum elevations in the world, making it extremely vulnerable to storms and changes in sea level. Tuvalu is also affected by the King Tide, a high tide that raises the sea level higher than normal. Coupled with the expected rise in global sea levels, the entire nation could ultimately become submerged. “I don’t care whether the place is big or small,” Hogh concludes. “It’s the same thing with people. No matter if you’re black or white or Chinese or whatever. It’s about treating each other with respect and it’s the same thing with these small islands.'