Coastal areas bear brunt of Sandy's damaging wrathA string of New Jersey's barrier islands got cut off from the mainland by storm surges. Crashing waves shattered part of a landmark fishing pier in Maryland. And dangerous winds forced the busy port in Portland, Maine, to close.
Before Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to New York's famous skyline or flooded lower Manhattan, the storm came howling into dozens of other communities across the Eastern Seaboard, bringing relentless winds, drenching rain and heavy, punishing surf.
And the danger is far from over. After merging with a cold-weather system just before making landfall near Atlantic City, the combined superstorm could still cause inland flooding and more widespread power outages as it spins along a path expected to take it over Pennsylvania before turning toward New England.
In New York City and New Jersey's Sandy Hook, the storm arrived with record storm surges — walls of fast-moving water that put long stretches of coastline at risk.
Image: Cars pass through a darkened neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012 in New York. Much of New York was plunged into darkness Monday by a superstorm that overflowed the city's historic waterfront, flooded the financial district and subway tunnels and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people.
