Mass transit grinds to a halt

Taxis drive down a New York street where the power was out late Monday, October 29. 

In New York, lower Manhattan's Battery Park recorded nearly 14-foot tide, smashing a record set by 1960's Hurricane Donna by more than 3 feet. The city had already halted service on its bus and train lines, closing schools and ordering about 400,000 people out of their homes in low-lying areas of Manhattan and elsewhere.

Flooding forced the closure of all three of the major airports in the area, LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty. Water seeped into subway stations in Lower Manhattan and into the tunnel connecting Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, while high winds damaged a crane perched atop a Midtown skyscraper under construction, forcing authorities to evacuate the surrounding area.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters there was an "extraordinary" amount of water in Lower Manhattan, as well as downed trees throughout the city and widespread power outages.

"We knew that this was going to be a very dangerous storm, and the storm has met our expectations," he said. "The worst of the weather has come, and city certainly is feeling the impacts."

The storm was blamed for more than 2.8 million outages across the Northeast. About 350,000 of them were in the New York city area, where utility provider Con Edison reported it had also cut power to customers in parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan to protect underground equipment as the storm waters rose.

But as water crept into its substations, Con Ed said it had lost service to about 250,000 customers in Manhattan -- including most of the island south of 39th Street.

Hurricane Sandy

A truck drives by a flooded gas station in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn on Monday.  Though no longer a hurricane, "post-tropical" superstorm Sandy packed a hurricane-sized punch as it slammed into the Jersey Shore on Monday, killing at least 11 people from West Virginia to North Carolina and Connecticut.

Sandy whipped torrents of water over the streets of Atlantic City, stretching for blocks inland and ripping up part of the vacation spot's fabled boardwalk. The storm surge set records in Lower Manhattan, where flooded substations caused a widespread power outage. It swamped beachfronts on both sides of Long Island Sound and delivered hurricane-force winds from Virginia to Cape Cod as it came ashore.

Sandy's wrath also prompted the evacuation of about 200 patients at NYU Langone Medical Center.

"We are having intermittent telephone access issues, and for this reason the receiving hospital will notify the families of their arrival," spokeswoman Lisa Greiner said.

In addition, the basement of New York's Bellevue Hospital Center flooded, and the hospital was running off of emergency backup power. Ian Michaels of the Office of Emergency Management said the main priority is to help secure additional power and obtain additional fuel and pumps for the hospital.

The storm hit near Atlantic City about 6 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center reported. It packed 80-mph winds at landfall, down from the 90 mph clocked earlier Monday.

5 of the World’s Most Haunted Places

Some people love a good scare; after all, there’s a reason that haunted tours, ghost-hunter shows, and horror movies find such success around the world. If you love being spooked, there are countless ways to incorporate a little bit of mystery and mayhem into your travels, if you dare.
Some of these places – haunted vaults, cities of voodoo witches, creepy crime scenes and suicidal forests  – are enough to make even the most fearless travelers reconsider their trip for “safer” destinations. Put them together and you have got yourself one heck of a fright fest. So grab your flashlight and running shoes and get ready because here are five of the most haunted and bloodcurdling tours in the world. Are you brave enough to take one?
 

Whitechapel in London, England

 Whitechapel and Spitalfields set the crime scene for one of the most famous and notoriously elusive serial killers in the world-Jack the Ripper.

In a bloody twelve-week span that ran from August 31 to November 9, 1888, 11 murdered women were discovered-only five were credited to Jack the Ripper, but all of the homicides remain unsolved.
For around £10.00 curious travelers can be transported through the cobblestone streets of London’s East End, to the pubs Jack may have prowled and through the haunts of London’s most brutal murders.
While Jack the Ripper’s ghost is the most notorious, London’s East End is also said to be haunted by the spirits of his victims, by a group of Roman soldiers who once occupied the area and by an evil sea captain who haunts a local pub.

5 of the Creepiest Castles in the World

Bodelwyddan Castle in Wales

Whispering ghosts, shadowy figures and phantom soldiers is enough to propel Bodelwyddan Castle to the top of the world’s scariest castles list, add in the fact that the walls were built around human bones and this creepy castle just got creepier.

In 1829, current Bodelwyddan Castle owner, Sir John Hay Williams noted the discovery of human bones near one of the chimneys. Since the castle was currently undergoing restoration, they continued to rebuild the castle around the bones.

Over the years, this 15th Century manor house has served as a private residence, a World War I recuperation hospital, a private girls’ school and a museum.

In 2004 the castle was featured as a location for the British TV program, Most Haunted.

20 Scariest Places to go for Halloween Countdown

With Halloween just around the corner, you may be wondering where some of the spookiest, creepiest, eeriest, most haunted and/or best places to visit on Halloween are located around the world. Places where mummies stare back at you or ghosts roam the hallways, caves where witches hide from the world or dungeons where people were once imprisoned and tortured are scattered throughout the world, giving the heebie jeebies to travelers and residents alike.
So, in honor of this spooky holiday, here is a list of the 20 creepiest Halloween destinations around the world. And, we’re not talking fake haunted houses and corn mazes with paid actors. We’re talking downright terrifying places where mysterious happenings occur year-round and which are guaranteed to give you goose bumps. From haunted prisons to caves to catacombs, these bone chilling places will scare the daylights out of you, and may just give you nightmares for weeks.

2. St. Michan’s Church, Dublin, Ireland

Although St. Michan’s church in Dublin, Ireland was founded in the mid 16th century and has the oldest organ still in use in the entire country, this next creepy destination is much more known for the vault that lies beneath the church. Down a limestone and mortar tunnel that extends below the church is a series of galleries for placing coffins.

Some galleries have been sealed off with wooden or iron doors, others have been left open. Through the iron doors of some, visitors can take a peek at a multitude of coffins laying helter skelter, the occasional arm or leg poking from the coffin lid. Then, in one of the open chambers, deep in the dark, damp tunnels below the church are 4 caskets with the lids completely removed, exposing mysteriously mummified remains—corpses partly covered with a layer of taut, leathery skin. Three of the four coffins lie in a row with a woman on the right, a man with a hand cut off and both feet missing in the center and a nun on the left. Some hypothesize the corpse is missing limbs because he was a thief and was punished by having them cut off, others believe he was simply too large to fit in the casket.

The final mummy in the vaults of St. Michan’s is a man believed to have been a soldier returned from the crusades, whose body is cut in half to fit in the casket and whose hand lifts eerily into the air. If visitors are brave enough to venture further into the underground vaults, they can see the caskets of the Sheare brothers, who were hanged, drawn and quartered in punishment for treason after an uprising in 1798. The most mysterious thing about the mummies of St. Michan is that no one understands why these bodies have not decomposed like others in surrounding areas. Maybe it’s the climate in the underground vaults, maybe it’s the high concentration of lime in the soil, or maybe it’s just something a little more paranormal and a lot spookier. It’s up to you to decide.

5 of the World’s Most Haunted Places

Some people love a good scare; after all, there’s a reason that haunted tours, ghost-hunter shows, and horror movies find such success around the world. If you love being spooked, there are countless ways to incorporate a little bit of mystery and mayhem into your travels, if you dare.
Some of these places – haunted vaults, cities of voodoo witches, creepy crime scenes and suicidal forests  – are enough to make even the most fearless travelers reconsider their trip for “safer” destinations. Put them together and you have got yourself one heck of a fright fest. So grab your flashlight and running shoes and get ready because here are five of the most haunted and bloodcurdling tours in the world. Are you brave enough to take one?

Aokigahara Forest in Japan

 Aokigahara Forest is a thick, dark woodland filled with Japanese moss and volcanic rock that borders Mount Fuji in Japan. However, it is better known throughout much of The Land of the Rising Sun as Suicide Forest.

With around 80 successful suicides a year, this sea of trees is intent on living up to its name. It is not uncommon for hikers to stumble upon bodies, propped against a tree with a gun or razor blade in their hand. Some visitors find corpses swinging from a tree limb, and other times all that is found is a mound of possessions, a few torn photos or a letter.
Legends claim massive underground iron deposits interfere with compasses, catching innocent hikers in the forests’ grasp, while spiritualists claim the trees have absorbed the malicious energy that has accumulated from centuries of unsettled souls who ended their lives too soon. Some of the most profound evidence of paranormal existence has been documented in these woods. Visitors can enter Aokigahara Forest at will.

5 of the Creepiest Castles in the World

Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland

 This imposing castle towers above the Princess Street Gardens in what is often called the most haunted city in Europe …

Edinburgh, Scotland. The 900+ year-old fortress was built on the remains of an ancient volcano and is home to some of the most interesting ghosts in the world.
Although visitors and guests report hearing the droning beat of a drum, few people have ever actually seen the drummer, who is reportedly a headless boy who only reveals himself before the castle is attacked.
The castle’s dog cemetery is allegedly prowled by a phantom four-legged friend and the dungeons are haunted by a special phenomenon that has been scientifically proven to be unexplainable.