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Obama warns Americans of "big and powerful" Hurricane Sandy

29 October 2012 18:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday noon warned Americans that the approaching Hurricane Sandy was a "big and powerful" storm with slow moving process and wide swath, and urged residents across impacted area to follow the instructions of local authorities, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Obama made the scheduled statement at the White House at 12:45 p.m. (1645 GMT) after having a briefing about the approaching deadly storm.

He said Hurricane Sandy was going to be a "big and powerful" storm and anticipated the center of storm to make its landfall Monday evening.

Obama called on Americans across the impacted area to follow the instructions of state and local authorities, including mandatory evacuation orders.

"The key is to make sure the public is following instructions to take precautions," he said.

He also said a lot of power outages can be expected in the affected areas and urged people to be prepared for the fact that it will take a long time to clean up after the storm due to its nature of slow moving and wide swath.

About 50 million people in an area stretching from the state of Virginia to Massachusetts were expected to feel the effects of Sandy, CNN reported.