Hurricane Sandy speeds up, could hit Atlantic City area by 4 p.m., forecasters warn

The massive swirl that is Hurricane Sandy has now officially turned toward New Jersey, accelerating quickly and expected to make landfall near Atlantic City as early as 4 p.m. today, forecasters say. In its 2 p.m. briefing, the National Hurricane Center said Sandy is now moving northwest at 28 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, and set to make landfall as the most powerful hurricane to ever make landfall in New Jersey.

The hurricane has accelerated dramatically since the last briefing just three hours ago, with New Jersey bracing for the most intense weather starting to occur in the southern and central coastal areas. Now just 110 miles away from land, Sandy is already hammering New Jersey with lashing winds and flooding rains, bringing rail and road travel to a near standstill. Government offices are shuttered and towns along the coast have been evacuated.Conditions are quickly deteriorating in Seaside Heights, where the wind and rain have kicked up considerably in the past hour. The storm surge near Funtown Pier seemed much stronger around 1:30 p.m., with waves cresting high and a series of violent white caps pounding the sand dunes, threatening to wash them away.

At the 14th Avenue pier, the Atlantic Ocean was also raging as driving rains and swirling winds were splashing over a boat ramp and violently clawing at a portable dock.. More than 50,000 customers are already without power throughout the state, especially along the coast. Jersey Central Power & Light is reporting 20,000 outages in Monmouth and Ocean counties. In Atlantic City, another 3,000 outages were reported, along with another 2,000 customers around the tip of Cape May. Public Service Electric & Gas, the state's largest utility, said thousands more are without power in Essex, Union and Burlington counties. In a public briefing from the State Police regional operations center, Gov. Chris Christie said residents have heeded mandatory evacuation orders in most barrier island communities. But in places like Seaside Heights and Brigantine, many stayed put, a decision the governor called “stupid and selfish.”We already have rescues ongoing on the barrier islands,” he said earlier today. “This is putting first responders in significant, significant danger and it’s not fair to their families to be putting them in danger because you decided to be hardheaded.” In Cape May, officials warned residents that the window of opportunity to safely evacuate had all but closed, and that they cannot guarantee help for those who chose to stay. In a press conference earlier, Mayor Edward Mahaney said fewer than 500 people ignored the mandatory order, at their peril. “Anyone who stayed past 4 o’clock yesterday, we are not able to guarantee that we’ll be able to affect a rescue or any service to them of public safety nature in the height of the storm,” he said. Cathy Dollinger is one of those residents. She boarded up her Lafayette Street home with the same plywood she used last year for Tropical Storm Irene. But that time around, she took her mother and her dog up to her brother's house in Brooklyn. Now, she plans on staying put. "I'm not sure we made such a good decision this time," she said as storm coverage on television played in the background. But, she said, she stocked up on provisions and thinks they'll be ok. "This house has been here for eons," she said. "It's over 100 years old."Roadways are closing quickly, with Garden State Parkway now shuttered in both directions south of Exit 63 in Stafford Township, Ocean County, the exit motorists take to Long Beach Island. The roadway will shut down south of Exit 129, where the Turnpike crosses the Parkway, beginning at 4 p.m. Earlier, a 35-mile stretch of the Parkway below Exit 38 was closed around 10 a.m. "Motorists should anticipate significant closures on the Turnpike and Parkway as conditions continue to deteriorate throughout the day and into the evening," Christie said this afternoon during his latest hurricane briefing, in Ewing. "As I’ve said again, stay off the road. You’re not just putting yourself in danger, but you’re putting others’ lives in danger." A travel ban remained in effect in Atlantic County. Across the Hudson River, America’s largest city is becoming a ghost town. The Holland and Brooklyn Battery tunnels were shut down at 2 p.m., a day after subway service shut down for only the second time in its history. Christie said every school in New Jersey was closed for today and more than half the districts had already decided to call off classes for Tuesday. In northern New Jersey, residents living in river communities are bracing for another round of the flooding that has become commonplace for them. By midday, the Hudson River was already out of its banks in Hoboken. Residents of Pompton Lakes, where the flood-prone Wanaque and Pequannock Rivers meet, put belongings out near the curb in advance of the storm. President Obama signed an emergency declaration for New Jersey on Sunday, allowing the state to request federal funding and other assistance for action taken in advance of the storm.