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Hurricane regains strength to target U.S., campaign events canceled

27 October 2012 22:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Hurricane Sandy on Saturday regained its hurricane strength after dropping to tropical storm earlier in the day, and is expected to impact U.S. East Coast as early as Sunday. The two presidential campaigns have both canceled events due to the approaching storm, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

At 8 a.m. Saturday, National Weather Services said Sandy was about 335 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. It has regained strength, and was again a category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 miles per hour.

The storm is expected to impact U.S. East Coast from mid- Atlantic to southern New England. Coupled with a winter storm front heading east, it could become a slow-moving super storm, dumping rain, gale, flash flood, and even snow to the most populated area of the United States in the early part of the next week.

Four states on the storm’s path, Virginia, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania, have already declared state of emergency, so did the District of Columbia.

Both election campaigns of President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have made changes because of the storm. The Obama campaign canceled Vice President Joe Biden’s Saturday rally in coastal Virginia Beach, and Romney also canceled a rally in Virginia Beach planned for Sunday. None of Obama’s campaign stops had been canceled, but he is reported to be adjusting his travel schedule, moving the planned Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night because of the storm.