Hurricane Sandy, the monster storm bearing down on the U.S. East Coast, strengthened on Monday after hundreds of thousands moved to higher ground, public transport shut down and the U.S. stock market saw its first weather-related closure in 27 years.
The ninth named storm of this years hurricane season has reached hurricane status, with reports now indicating a high risk of flood surge as it approaches the Gulf Coast.
More than four million U.S. residences along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts are at risk of hurricane-driven storm-surge damage, totaling $710 billion in property exposure, says the 2012 CoreLogic Storm Surge Report.