Storm-driven waves crashed ashore and flooded seafront communities across the US East Coast yesterday as Hurricane Sandy barreled towards land amid catastrophic predictions.

Right now, our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives

Officials warned that the threat to life and property was “unprecedented” and ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in cities and towns from New England to North Carolina to evacuate their homes and seek shelter.

The storm, a deadly combination of a tropical hurricane rolling north from the Caribbean and fierce wintry winds approaching from Canada, is expected to leave tens of millions without power and tens of thousands of homes flooded.

Amtrak trains up and down the coast were cancelled until tomorrow and tens of thousands of travellers were marooned in airports. The Department of Energy said 36,000 households in seven states were already without power.

“The most important message to the public I have right now, is ‘please listen to what your state and local officials are saying.’ When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate,” President Barack Obama said.

The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the futures markets in Chicago were closed yesterday. Some of the world’s richest cities were effectively shut for business and the US election campaign was severely disrupted.

Disaster estimator Eqecat said the storm would affect 60 million Americans, a fifth of the population, and could leave up to $20 billion (€15 billion) in damage.

The centre of the category one hurricane, which had already killed at least 66 people in the Caribbean, was expected to make landfall in southern New Jersey or Delaware very early this morning.

Streets leading up to Atlantic City’s famed ocean-front boardwalk were flooded, and mostly deserted as the city braced for high tide. In nearby Ocean City, a section of promenade was smashed and fell into the storm surge.

TV footage showed widespread flooding in coastal areas of Long Island and New Jersey and a crane partially collapsed and was left dangling precariously over a street between skyscrapers in Manhattan.

Forecasters have warned that the storm’s effects could extend all the way from North Carolina to New England. Parts of New York and Boston were subject to evacuation orders, and Washington was rain-swept and deserted.

As it approached, Sandy’s maximum sustained winds strengthened to 90 miles (150 kilometers) per hour. At 1900 GMT, its eye was located about 85 miles southeast of the evacuated gambling haven of Atlantic City.

With just eight days until polling day, Obama cancelled an appearance in the swing state of Florida, returning to the White House to steer the relief effort while citizens watched the weather on live webcams.

“The election will take care of itself next week,” Obama said. “Right now, our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives... and that we respond as quickly as possible to get the economy back on track.”

Both the Democrat incumbent and his Republican rival Mitt Romney were keen to stay on top of public sentiment regarding the storm, given the memory of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Romney also cancelled some appearances.

Former president George W. Bush was widely seen as having bungled the handling of Katrina, which devastated New Orleans. The failure of authorities in the ensuing emergency response tainted the rest of his presidency.

Although Sandy lacks the sheer force of Katrina, it has a broader front and will combine with cold weather bearing down from Canada to wreak havoc in a climatic confluence of events dubbed a “Perfect Storm”.

Forecasters warned that New York Harbour and the Long Island Sound could see seawater surges of over three metres above normal levels, coinciding with high tides due to the full moon.

The storm caused disaster at sea when the 16-person crew of a replica of the HMS Bounty, the three-mast vessel on which a famous mutiny took place in 1789, was forced to abandon ship after it started to take in water.

The sailors donned cold-water survival suits and life jackets before launching in two 25-man lifeboats with canopies after getting caught up in stormy waters 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, North Carolina.

Fourteen crew members were hoisted to safety but two were still missing, the coast guard said.