Hurricane Sandy Affects Campaigning; Category 1 Will Bring Flooding, High Winds

Hurricane Sandy has affected political campaigns around the country as the Category 1 storm is preparing to barrel into New Jersey.

President Barack Obama was spending time monitoring the storm’s potential impact, including speaking with Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday on the chances of Connecticut receiving a pre-storm emergency declaration in order to expedite the paperwork for federal funding.

On the Republican side, presidential nominee Mitt Romney canceled appearances in the expected storm area of Virginia and instead headed to Ohio for a bus tour with his running mate, Paul Ryan.

In Connecticut, severe flooding and high winds are expected to be the major problems. Weather forecasters are predicting about only 1 to 3 inches of rain with as little as 1 inch in the Hartford area – far below the initial expectation of 7 to 14 inches of rain that had been announced on Friday at the state Capitol.

The worst 24-hour period is expected to be from about 10 a.m. Monday through 10 a.m. Tuesday as the storm picks up intensity throughout the day Monday and into the night. As a result, numerous public schools – as well as colleges and universities – will be closed across the state on Monday. Some will be closed Tuesday, too.

In Connecticut, one of the biggest problems will be the storm surge in Long Island Sound, particularly at high tide in New London on Monday day. The storm surge in New Haven could be worse than during Tropical Storm Irene.

Most major transportation in the tri-state area will be shut down at 7 p.m. Sunday, including the Metro-North Commuter Railroad, Long Island Rail Road and the New York City subway system. The subways were shut down in last year’s storm in a highly unusual move for the city of more than 7 million residents. In the same way, Broadway shows in Manhattan are very rarely canceled, but they are shut down on Sunday night and Monday night.

Amtrak, which has major stations in New Haven and Hartford, is shutting down many trains in the Northeast on Monday.