Hurricane Sandy, a mammoth storm menacing the East Coast, took aim at the most densely populated US region today, forcing hundreds of thousands to seek higher ground.
Public transport has been halted and schools, businesses, Wall Street and government departments have been closed.
About 50m people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada were in the path of the storm, which forecasters say could be the largest ever to hit the US mainland.
It is expected to topple trees, damage buildings and cause widespread power outages over the next few days.
Sandy, which killed 66 people in the Caribbean and has brought lashing rains to coastal areas and snow at higher elevations, will cause extensive flooding when it moves inland, forecasters said.
The websites of forecasting services indicated early today the storm will strike the New Jersey shore near Atlantic City Monday night.
While Sandy does not pack the punch of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, its winds stretch some 520 miles (835km) from its eye, meteorologists said.
New York and other cities and towns closed their transit systems and schools and ordered mass evacuations from low-lying areas ahead of a storm surge that could reach as high as 11 feet (3.4 metres).
All US stock markets will be closed on Monday and possibly Tuesday, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange said late on Sunday, reversing an earlier plan that would have kept electronic trading going on Monday.
Sandy forced President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney to cancel some campaign stops and fuelled fears that it could disrupt early voting - encouraged by the candidates this year more than ever - before the 6 November election.
The United Nations, Broadway theatres, New Jersey casinos, schools up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and myriad corporate events are also being shut down.
'Don't be stupid'
Officials ordered people in coastal towns and low-lying areas to evacuate, often telling them they would put emergency workers' lives at risk if they stayed.
"Don't be stupid, get out, and go to higher, safer ground," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told a news conference.
Forecasters said Sandy was a rare, hybrid "super storm" created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around a tropical storm, possibly causing up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in some areas, as well as up to 3 feet (90 cm) of snowfall in the Appalachian Mountains from West Virginia to Kentucky.
Flights cancelled
The Dublin Airport Authority has warned that a number of transatlantic flights have been cancelled due to severe weather associated with the hurricane.
Aer Lingus has had to cancel its flights to and from New York and Boston today.
The following flights have been cancelled
EI-105 Dublin to New York and EI-104 New York to Dublin
EI-111 Shannon to New York and EI-110 New York to Shannon
EI-109 Dublin to New York and EI-108 New York to Dublin
EI- 133 Dublin to Boston and EI- 136 Boston to Dublin
EI- 137 Dublin to Boston and EI- 138 Boston to Dublin
The Dublin to Chicago and Chicago to Dublin services are currently scheduled to operate.
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