Society

Photo: A satellite image of Hurricane Sandy taken at 4pm shows the path of the storm.

New York City is quickly preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, with the city's 8 million residents rushing out to buy up all the essentials. Staples like water, eggs, bread and produce have been flying off store shelves as the megastorm barrells its way towards America's largest city. For only the second time in the subway's hundred-year history, the entire metropolitan transit system, including buses, will be shut down beginning at 7pm tonight.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference on Sunday just before noon, telling those in low-lying areas they must evacuate. He also said that all public schools will be closed on Monday, and urged NYC residents to stay inside as much as possible beginning at sundown tonight, warning of torrential rain and high winds up to 70mph.

Bloomberg also ordered that residents of the Rockaways, a low-lying area of Queens near Jamaica Bay, evacuate. He said:

"If you don't evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you. This is a serious and dangerous storm."

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast of western Canada on Friday generated waves in the Pacific Ocean that have now reached Hawaii. A tsunami warning was issued, and officials say that the highest waves so far are about 5 feet and no damage has been reported.

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie said that a tsunami warning spurred coastal evacuations statewide is now being downgraded to a tsunami advisory, but beaches and harbors will remain closed. He added that Hawaii was lucky to avoid more severe surges after the powerful quake.

According to Gerard Fryer of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the first waves hitting shore are smaller than expected. He said that the largest wave in the first 45 minutes of the tsunami was measured at 5 feet in Maui. Fryer warns, however, that the first waves are not usually the biggest for tsunamis in Hawaii and that it could be as long as seven hours before the warning is cancelled if the waves get bigger.

Fryer said though:

"It's beginning to look like the evacuation may not have been necessary."

Originally, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that there was no tsunami threat to Hawaii, but then issued the warning late on Saturday evening. The warning remains in effect until 7pm Sunday and a small craft advisory is also in effect until Sunday morning.

Hurricane Sandy has been swirling around in the Atlantic Ocean after having caused damage and death in the Caribbean earlier in the week, but forecasters have been unable to pinpoint exactly where the monsterous storm will make landfall in the U.S. - until now. Forecasters are now sure that the storm is going to make landfall in central or southern New Jersey late on Monday or early Tuesday, with the devastating right hook of the storm hitting New York City and Long Island.

New Yorkers are expected to experience the worst of the storm Monday night, when the 70mph winds and torrential rain will arrive.

AccuWeather meteorologist Mark Paquette predicts:

“This will be a storm very few people have experienced in their lifetime."

Paquette also predicts that the storm will be more disasterous than 2011's Hurricane Irene, which caused $15 billion in damage.

The so-called Frankenstorm is a rare convergence of three systems - Category 1 Hurricane Sandy, colliding with frigid Canadian air coming south and a wintry storm moving in from the west. The storm is expected to stall over an 800-mile stretch of the Northeast for days. The megastorm is expected to bring with it nearly a foot of rain, and in Pennsylvania and West Virginia could dump up to two feet of snow.

On Friday, forecasters said that there was now a 90 percent certainty that Hurricane Sandy would make landfall on the East Coast, but warned that it was too early to predict where the massive storm would strike or just how intense its winds would be when it hit.

The storm is currently moving northwest at about 10 miles per hour, and may stay off the coast in the Atlantic until Monday or Tuesday, but it is more likely to combine with a colder weather system from the west and may end up dumping a foot or more of snow, possibly even two feet, in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, and cause strong wings all the way down to the Ohio River Valley and eastern Great Lakes.

In addition to the snow in the Appalachians, the storm is also expected to dump as much as 10 inches of rain n the area where it makes landfall, which will create a significant storm surge that will lead to flooding throughout a large coastal area, with the most serious perhaps being in Delaware.

On Friday, the hurr

Former U.S. Senator George McGovern passed away early Sunday, according to a statement issued by his family. He was 90-years-old and passed away due to a "combination of medical conditions" at a hospice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The family issued a statement which read:

"At approximately 5:15 am CT [6: 15 a.m. ET] this morning, our wonderful father, George McGovern passed away peacefully at the Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, SD, surrounded by our family and life-long friends.

We are blessed to know that our father lived a long, successful and productive life advocating for the hungry, being a progressive voice for millions and fighting for peace.

He continued giving speeches, writing and advising all the way up to and past his 90th birthday, which he celebrated this summer."

This weekend, Kent State University opened up the "May 4 Visitors Center", which aims to describe the social and cultural backdrop of the time of the infamous 1970 KSU shootings that killed four students and injured nine others.

On May 4, 1970, Kent State was the scene of deadly gunfire when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students that were protesting the Vietnam War. This event helped to stimulate opposition to the war.

The actual site of the shootings already features a memorial, walking tour, and markers where each of the four students died.

The new visitors center opened on Saturday. The 1,900-square-foot space is located on the ground floor of the former student newspaper office in Taylor Hall, and was funded by $1.1 million in donations from veterans groups, the university, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the public.

On Thursday, U.S. health authorities said that more people than previously thought may have received the possibly tainted steroid injections, and roughly 14,000 people could be at risk of contracting meningitis.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the number of people at risk was revised after consulting with health authorities. The number is now 1,000 higher than previously thought.

So far, 14 patients have died from meningitis, and 170 have been infected, reported the CDC in its latest update. The CDC said that the number of infections ballooned by 33 since Wednesday, and added that Florida reported its second death and Indiana reported its first death from this unprecedented outbreak of meningitis. Menitngitis cases have been confirmed in 11 states, but 23 states received shipments.

The widening outbreak has refocused attention on the regulation of pharmaceutical compounding companies like the the one that produced the drug at the center of the meningitis outbreak, the New England Compounding Center Inc. (NECC) in Framingham, Massachusetts.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, more than 50 vials of steroid treatments from NECC and other sites have tested positive for fungus that causes meningitis.

According to a new study, for the first time in the history of the United States, the country does not have a Protestant majority.

What led to the percentage of Protestant adults in the U.S. reaching a new low of 48 percent is not people switching religious affiliations, but rather, is due to the rising numbers of Americans who have no religious affiliation. Another, lesser reason for the change is the growth in nondenominational Christians who can no longer be categorized as Protestant.

This marks the first time that the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has been able to report with certainty that the number has fallen below 50 percent. The drop does not come as a surprise, however, as it has long been anticipated.

The national unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent in September, the first time that the rate has fell below 8 percent in nearly four years and giving President Barack Obama's re-election bid a possibly major boost.

The U.S. Labor Department figures show that employers added 114,000 jobs in September. Wages also rose, and more people began looking for work. 86,000 more jobs were also created in July and August than initially estimated.

The figures immediately sparked complaints of political manipulation in the aftermath of a poor performance by President Obama at the debate on Wednesday in Denver.

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, tweeted:

"Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers."

The scope of the meningitis outbreak that has killed at least five people has increased dramatically. On Thursday, health officials warned that hundreds, maybe even thousands, of patients who received steroid back injections in 23 states could now be at risk.

Clinics and medical centers have rushed to get into contact with patients who may have received the shots, which appear may have been contaminated with a fungus. The Food and Drug Administration is urging doctors not to use any products at all from the Massachusetts pharmacy that supplied the steroid solution.