This image obtained on October 28, 2012 from the University of Wisconsin'd Space Science and Engineering Center, shows Hurricane Sandy off the US East coast. US emergency officials braced for the potentially massive impact of a so-called "Frankenstorm" Sunday as Hurricane Sandy lumbered north in the Atlantic Ocean, poised to hit the eastern seaboard with torrential rains and gale-force winds. The superstorm was expected to make landfall somewhere between Virginia and Massachusetts early Tuesday, possibly causing chaos during the frenzied last days of campaigning before the November 6 US presidential vote. As it churned in a northeasterly direction, the massive weather system was at category one strength, the lowest-level hurricane on the five-tiered Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The center said that while little change in strength was anticipated for Sandy, which was now located 260 miles (420 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, it was "expected to remain a large and powerful until it crosses the coastline." =RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT " AFP PHOTO / UW-SSEC/" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS =
Foto: AFP - HO