Most have stocked up on emergency supplies
partially collapsed crane hangs from a high-rise building in Manhattan as Hurricane Sandy makes its approach in New York October 29, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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A partially collapsed crane hangs from a high-rise building in Manhattan as Hurricane Sandy makes its approach in New York October 29, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS NEW YORK (AP) - A construction crane atop a US$1.5 billion (S$1.8 billion) luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan collapsed in high winds on Monday and dangled precariously as a Hurricane Sandy bore down on the New York. Some buildings, including the nearby Parker Meridien hotel, were being evacuated as a precaution and the streets below were cleared, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. Meteorologists said winds atop the 74-story building could have been close to 155 kilometres per hour at the time. The nearly completed high-rise is known as One57 and is in one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods, near Carnegie Hall, Columbus Circle and Central Park. It had been inspected, along with other city cranes, on Friday and was found to be ready for the impending bad weather. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said later on Monday it wasn't clear why the accident happened. "It's conceivable that nobody did anything wrong and there was no malfunction, it was just a strange gust of wind," Mr Bloomberg said. Engineers and inspectors were planning to hike up the 74 flights of stairs to examine the crane. The harrowing inspection was being undertaken by experts who are "the best of the best," city Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani said. The New York Times recently called the building a "global billionaires' club" because the nine full-floor apartments near the top have all been sold to billionaires. Among them are two duplexes under contract for more than US$90 million each. Ms Shannon Kaye, 96, lives in the building next door. "We heard a noise, but we didn't know what it was," she said. Minutes later, she and her neighbours were told to leave. "I never liked that building, looking down into my bedroom," she said. "I always had the feeling that something would come falling down from it." Construction cranes have been a source of safety worries in the city since two giant rigs collapsed within two months of each other in Manhattan in 2008, killing a total of nine people. Storm sinks tall ship HMS Bounty, one missing Published on Oct 30, 2012 
In this July 7, 2010 file photo, the tall ship HMS Bounty sails on Lake Erie off Cleveland. The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued 14 members of the crew forced to abandon the HMS Bounty caught in Hurricane Sandy off North Carolina. -- WASHINGTON (AFP) - A replica of the HMS Bounty that starred in Hollywood movies sank on Monday in towering waves whipped up by mega-storm Sandy; fourteen crew survived, but one was missing and one was found "unresponsive." The US Coast Guard said it had found Ms Claudene Christian, 42, "unresponsive" late on Monday and she had been helicoptered to hospital amid a dramatic sea search for one man still missing in the Atlantic Ocean. The crew abandoned the 55-metre three-mast ship, built in 1960 for the film "Mutiny on the Bounty" starring Marlon Brando, before it sank in the fierce seas, its owner said. The ship was off the coast of North Carolina when it radioed in a distress call on Sunday night. Before dawn on Monday, with the ship lacking power and taking on water and the crew unable to pump fast enough, they abandoned ship and took to two life boats in cold water survival suits and life jackets, the US Coast Guard said. Coast Guard helicopters initially plucked 14 crew members out of the raging water. The woman was found later in the day, but a man believed to be the ship's captain named as Mr Robin Walbridge, 63, was still missing, the Coast Guard said. This voyage, with the ship's permanent, paid crew, left from Connecticut last week and had been due to arrive in Florida on November 10, said Tracey Simonin, director of the ship's owner, The HMS Bounty Organization. "A crew aboard an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City ... located Ms Christian who was unresponsive, hoisted her into the helicopter and took her to Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City," it said in a statement. The HMS Bounty was a replica of the eponymous British transport vessel known for the mutiny that took place in Tahiti in 1789. Besides being used in documentaries and Hollywood movies, including "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" with Johnny Depp, the vessel offered tours for people to learn about 18th century square-rigged sailing. Storm-driven waves crashed ashore and flooded seafront communities across the US East Coast late on Monday as Sandy bore down on the shoreline, amid fears it could cause widespread chaos and damage. Sandy slams into New York, sea surge floods streets Published on Oct 30, 2012 
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