Forecasters: Sandy races toward NJ, Delaware coast

Forecasters: Sandy races toward NJ, Delaware coast

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Forecasters say the eye of Hurricane Sandy is racing toward an expected landfall early this evening in southern New Jersey or Delaware.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm’s top sustained winds are holding at about 90 mph (150 kph). At 5 p.m. EDT, Sandy’s center was about 30 miles (65 kms) east-southeast of Cape May, N.J. The vast storm was headed west-northwest at 28 miles per hour (44 kph).

Forecasters say Sandy will lash the coast with life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds.

Sandy was set to collide with a wintry storm from the west and cold air approaching from the Arctic. The combination superstorm could menace some 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation, from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.