Officials expect the worst of Hurricane Sandy to come this evening, when the storm makes landfall in Southern New Jersey, according to the National Weather Service:
AT 2 PM EDT… THE CENTER OF HURRICANE SANDY WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 38.3N… LONGITUDE 73.1W. THIS POSITION IS ABOUT 220 MILES EAST OF WASHINGTON DC. SANDY WAS MOVING NORTHWEST AT 28 MPH… WITH MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS OF 90 MPH. SANDY IS FORECAST TO MAKE LANDFALL ALONG THE SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY COAST EARLY THIS EVENING… WITH A LITTLE STRENGTHENING POSSIBLE BEFORE LANDFALL. SANDY WILL SEVERELY IMPACT THE REGION WELL BEFORE IT COMES ASHORE.
Winds will be at their peak from 6 p.m. tonight until 6 a.m. tomorrow morning and could reach gusts of 80 miles per hour in the D.C. suburbs:
WINDS WILL INCREASE STEADILY THIS AFTERNOON…WITH THE MAXIMUM WIND GUSTS OCCURRING LATE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING.
GENERALLY…SUSTAINED WINDS OF 30 TO 50 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH CAN BE EXPECTED ACROSS THE ENTIRE REGION.
HURRICANE FORCE WIND GUSTS OF 70 AND POSSIBLY 80 MPH ARE EXPECTED TO IMPACT A REGION LOCATED BETWEEN BEL AIR MD…POINT LOOKOUT MD…AND HAGERSTOWN MD BETWEEN 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 6 AM TUESDAY. THIS INCLUDES THE GREATER BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREAS.
COUPLED WITH HEAVY RAINS FROM SANDY…THE HIGH WINDS WILL RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT TREE DAMAGE AND POWER LINE DAMAGE.
This afternoon, Pepco officials said power outage restoration may take a week in some areas. As of 3:45 p.m., 1,005 customers in six Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Kensington and North Bethesda zip codes were without power, according to Pepco’s online outage map.
The Federal Government will again be closed Tuesday. Metro planned to update its status for Tuesday around 6 or 7 p.m.
