Hurricane Sandy on verge of New Jersey landfall

Fire fighters look at a partially collapsed four-storey apartment building in Manhattan as Hurricane Sandy made its approach to New York October 29, 2012. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

NEW YORK/REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware (Reuters) - Hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest storms ever to hit the United States, lashed the densely populated East Coast on Monday, shutting down transportation, forcing evacuations in flood-prone areas and interrupting the presidential campaign.

Fierce winds and flooding racked hundreds of miles of Atlantic coastline and heavy snows were forecast farther inland at higher elevations as the centre of the storm moves ashore along the coast of southern New Jersey or Delaware on Monday evening.