After Sandy, U.S. works to resume daily life

People in the northeastern U.S. battered by superstorm Sandy are taking the first cautious steps to reclaim routines upended by the monster storm, even as rescuers comb neighborhoods strewn with debris and scarred by floods and fire.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stood on the storied trading floor on Wednesday morning and rang the opening bell —marking the resumption of trading after its two-day shutdown.

And while two airports also reopened, it became clear that restoring the region to its ordinarily frenetic pace could take days — and that rebuilding the hardest-hit communities and the transportation networks that link them together could take considerably longer.

In New York, rush-hour traffic appeared thicker than as people started to return to work in a highly populated city without functioning subways. Cars were bumper to bumper on several major highways, as New York City buses returned to the streets with partial service.

"We will get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times — by standing together, shoulder to shoulder, ready to help a neighbour, comfort a stranger and get the city we love back on its feet," Bloomberg said on Tuesday.

The superstorm left at least 55 people in the northeastern U.S. dead, and many homes flooded and without power, before moving across Pennsylvania on a predicted path toward New York state and Canada.

The scale of the recovery challenge was clear across the Hudson River in New Jersey, where National Guard troops arrived in the heavily flooded city of Hoboken to help evacuate thousands still stuck in their homes. And new problems arose when firefighters were unable to reach blazes rekindled by natural gas leaks in the heavily hit shore town of Mantoloking.

On the Brooklyn Bridge, closed earlier because of high winds, joggers and bikers made their way across the span before sunrise. One cyclist carried a flashlight. Car traffic on the bridge was busy, and slowed as it neared Manhattan.

On Wednesday morning in New York City, both schools and parks remained closed, but air traffic began to return to some of the region's airports in limited capacity, the CBC's David Common reported.

"[New York] is trying to get back to normal in many ways at this point," he said. "But that's going to take a long time. The subway tunnels are still flooded. We could have very partial, very limited service coming back later today. But until it's fully back, we really can't get the bloodstream of this city going again."

At the height of the disaster, more than 8.2 million lost electricity — some as far away as Michigan. Nearly a quarter of those without power were in New York, where lower Manhattan's usually bright lights remained dark for a second night.

Damage is 'heartbreaking'

Amid the despair, talk of recovery was already beginning.

"It's heartbreaking after being here 37 years," Barry Prezioso of Point Pleasant, N.J., said as he returned to his house in the beachfront community to survey the damage. "You see your home demolished like this, it's tough. But nobody got hurt and the upstairs is still livable, so we can still live upstairs and clean this out. I'm sure there's people that had worse. I feel kind of lucky."

Much of the initial recovery efforts focused on New York City, the region's economic heart. Bloomberg said it could take four or five days before the subway, which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history, is running again.

All 10 of the tunnels that carry commuters under the East River were flooded. But high water prevented inspectors from immediately assessing damage to key equipment, raising the possibility that the nation's largest city could endure an extended shutdown of the system that 5 million people count on to get to work and school each day.

The chairman of the state agency that runs the subway, Joseph Lhota, said service might have to resume piecemeal, and experts said the cost of the repairs could be staggering.

Power company Consolidated Edison said it would be four days before the last of the 337,000 customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn who lost power have electricity again and it could take a week to restore outages in the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Westchester County. Floodwater led to explosions that disabled a power substation Monday night, contributing to the outages.

Surveying the widespread damage, it was clear much of the recovery and rebuilding will take far longer.

When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stopped in Belmar, N.J., during a tour of the devastation, one woman wept openly and 42-year-old Walter Patrickis told him, "Governor, I lost everything."

Christie, who called the shore damage "unthinkable," said a full recovery would take months, at least, and it would likely be a week or more before power is restored to everyone who lost it.

"Now we've got a big task ahead of us that we have to do together. This is the kind of thing New Jerseyans are built for," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama was scheduled to visit Atlantic City and other parts of New Jersey on Wednesday afternoon, to see some of the worst damage.

By sundown Tuesday, however, announcements from officials and scenes on the streets signaled that New York and nearby towns were edging toward a semblance of routine.

Traders and staff report to work at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Mayor Michael Bloomberg rang the opening bell at the storied trading floor on Wednesday, marking the reopening of the exchage after superstorm Sandy forced it to close for two days. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

First came the reopening of highways in Connecticut and bridges across the Hudson and East rivers, although the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan, and the Holland Tunnel, between New York and New Jersey, remained closed.

A limited number of the white and blue buses that crisscross New York's grid returned Tuesday evening to Broadway and other thoroughfares on a reduced schedule — but free of charge. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he hoped there would be full service by Wednesday. Still, school was cancelled for a third straight day Wednesday in the city, where many students rely on buses and subways to reach classrooms.

In one bit of good news, officials announced that John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Newark International Airport in New Jersey would reopen at 7 a.m. Wednesday with limited service. New York's LaGuardia Airport remains closed.

Trains resume, but many tunnels waterlogged

Amtrak also laid out plans to resume some runs in the Northeast on Wednesday, with modified service between Newark, N.J., and points south. That includes restoring Virginia service to Lynchburg, Richmond and Newport News, Keystone trains in Pennsylvania, and Downeaster service between Boston and Portland, Maine.

But flooding continues to prevent service to and from New York's Penn Station. Amtrak said the amount of water in train tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers is unprecedented. There will be no Northeast Regional service between New York and Boston and no Acela Express service for the entire length of the Northeast Corridor. No date has been set for when it might resume.

But even with the return of some transportation and plans to reopen schools and businesses, the damage and pain inflicted by Sandy continued to unfold, confirming the challenge posed by rebuilding.

In New Jersey, amusement rides that once crowned a pier in Seaside Heights were dumped into the ocean, some homes were smashed, and others were partially buried in sand.

Farther north in Hoboken, across the Hudson from Manhattan, New Jersey National Guard troops arrived Tuesday night with high-wheeled vehicles to reach thousands of flood victims stuck in their homes. They arrived to find a town with live wires dangling in the floodwaters that Mayor Dawn Zimmer said were rapidly mixing with sewage. At nightfall, the city turned almost completely dark.

About 2.1 million homes and businesses remained without power across the state late Tuesday. When Tropical Storm Irene struck last year, it took more than a week to restore power everywhere. The state's largest utility, PSE&G, said it was trying to dry out substations it had to shut down.

With files from CBC News

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Kenney set to release 2013 immigration levels

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has been focused on restructuring Canada's immigration system, with a strong emphasis on finding immigrants likely to integrate and succeed in the Canadian workforce. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney will announce Canada's 2013 immigration targets today, meeting reporters at 11:30 a.m. ET on Parliament Hill to outline how many people will become permanent residents next year.

Canada plans to admit 240,000 to 265,000 new permanent residents in 2013 – the same annual target range it has set for immigration since 2007.

However, Kenney is expanding the number of admissions under the Canadian Experience Class, which aims to recruit and retain international students who have studied and graduated in Canada as well as temporary foreign workers who speak one of Canada's official languages and already have Canadian work experience.

Up to 10,000 permanent residents will be accepted next year in the Canada Experience Class, up from 7,000 in 2012 and 2,500 in 2009.

Last month, Kenney's department marked its 20,000 immigrant under this class, after five years in existence. Admitting up to 10,000 in a single year represents a big jump.

The minister's annual immigration plan must be tabled in Parliament each year by Nov.1. It sets overall targets for how many newcomers will be issued visas to be admitted to Canada from abroad, as well as how many students and temporary foreign workers already in Canada will be allowed to stay.

The numbers of people accepted for permanent residency are expressed as a range under each of three categories:

• Economic immigrants.
• Family reunification immigrants.
• Protected persons (refugees).

The operational targets for the number of visas issued for new arrivals can exceed the admissions targets because not everyone issued a visa moves to Canada that same year.

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EXCLUSIVE | The CBC in Syria: Under siege in Aleppo

In Syria's largest city, people are afraid to gaze into the sky.

Syria's air force has hammered Aleppo for the last three months. MiG fighter jets fire rockets. Helicopters dump barrels of explosives. And it's those residents who have tried to remain who are caught in the middle.

"My house was destroyed by an explosion," said Mohammad Kanazavah, who lives in central Aleppo. "I was very afraid."

Kanazavah's 13-year-old niece was killed in the attack, and his wife suffered severe injuries and remains in a local hospital. And there is no doubt in his mind who is at fault: the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

A CBC News team has just returned after several days in Aleppo province, near Syria's northern border with Turkey.

It is a region that became engulfed in the now 19-month uprising later than others. But it has recently seen some of the most severe violence.

Everywhere you turn in Aleppo, the scars of a brutal war pitting rebel fighters against government soldiers are evident.

Entire streets are littered with concrete blocks and rubble caused by mortar or rocket attacks. Walls are pockmarked, often from indiscriminate sniper fire.

A truce negotiated recently by the UN envoy slowed the fighting somewhat, but shelling and shooting continued in Aleppo.

"Every day, we face this," said Khaled Hafagi, referring to the near-constant bombardment of his city. "It is now normal for us to see bombs and explosions coming from the sky."

A Syrian boy walks through rubble where a field clinic once stood before it was bombed by regime forces in Anadan, just outside Aleppo. (Derek Stoffel / CBC)

Hafagi's house was hit a month ago, leaving a large hole in his bedroom wall.

He sent his wife and children into the countryside, where it is safer. But he remains at home, like most in the city, not working because of the conflict.

Aleppo, one of the oldest cities in the world, has seen much of its history destroyed by the violence.

Parts of the Old City have been reduced to rubble. The city's covered souk, its historic market, burned as the two sides fought pitched battles last month. Two weeks later, its landmark Umayyad Mosque, a UN World Heritage Site, was also totally destroyed in the fighting.

But some residents are doing whatever they can to restore a sense of normalcy amid the chaos of what is now a war zone.

An elderly man named Abed now spends his days sweeping up dirt and broken glass from the streets in the city centre.

And a group of men associated with the Free Syrian Army are organizing garbage collection, to remove mounds of rotting trash from the streets.

"The regime is trying to make life so difficult, so that the people will turn on the rebels," said Haj Omar, the man responsible for the trash collection. "I will not let that happen."

As he puts it, "Bashar al-Assad bombs, but we will rebuild."

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$2B fundraising for U.S. presidential race raises concern

When all is said and done, and all the money contributed to the presidential campaigns is tallied up, more than $2 billion will have been raised and spent on the bid for the White House.

That total, which is roughly the equivalent of Greenland's GDP, will represent the highest amount of money gathered during a presidential campaign.

According to reports, U.S. President Barack Obama has raised a little over $1 billion with Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney not far behind. Just for the first 15 days of October, the Obama team pulled in $88.8 million compared with $111.8 million for Romney. While Obama has an advantage with direct contributions, Romney has a huge lead in SuperPAC money.

And in terms of money actually spent so far, the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan organization that crunches campaign numbers, said Obama's campaign has doled out $912 million, while Romney has spent $937 million.

U.S. election rules allow individual donors to give a total of $2,500 to a candidate in the general elections. But there is no limit to SuperPAC contributions. And the influx of outside money has sparked some concerns and criticisms.

Donor secrecy

"In the presidential race the outside groups are generating a lot of heat but not necessarily a lot of light," Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the CRP, told CBC News. "There are hundreds of millions of dollars being raised and spent, much of it in secret, and so that adds to a greater degree of uncertainty."

Both candidates have been able to raise such large sums because both declined the public financing system — roughly $100 million in taxpayer money — that would have limited how much they could spend.

"That has been another element to the feeding frenzy here, that they cannot stop fundraising even when it may come at a cost to reaching out to voters they may need to connect with," Krumholz said. "The nominees would have been able to focus on getting out the vote and connecting with voters. Now they're dividing their attention between the voters and the cash constituents."

The Supreme Court's controversial 2010 Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission decision gave birth to the SuperPACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash. The only restriction is the groups cannot co-ordinate their actions with the candidate they hope to help.

"Every national election in this country sets a record [for spending], but his one will far exceed anything that has happened in the past," said Fred Wertheimer, founder and president of Democracy 21, an advocate of campaign finance reform. "The major reason is the misguided Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case that has changed the landscape of American politics and has wreaked havoc in the 2012 elections."

"The problem here is the money going to outside groups is coming in the form of unlimited contributions, secret money and corporate funds which is the same kind of money that was at the heart of the Watergate scandals," he told CBC News. "So what you have here is massive amounts of potentially corrupting influence money, funding these outside expenditures."

Record advertising

More money has meant more advertising. According to the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks advertising in federal elections, more than 915,000 presidential ads have been aired on broadcast and national cable television since June 1 — a 44.5 per cent increase over the last election, which saw 637,000 ads aired.

Obama's campaign has spent over $238.9 million for 460,000 ads. In comparison, Romney's campaign has only doled out $92.3 million for 170,000 ads. But pro-Romney SuperPACs Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads alone have combined to spend nearly the same as the Romney campaign on ads. Meanwhile, Restore Our Future, another pro-Romney SuperPAC, has spent over $42 million since the end of April.

Both parties have ramped up advertising spending in October, with Obama's campaign having aired $65 million for 97,000 ads compared with $30 million for 43,000 ads for Romney. But Romney was aided by American Crossroads, which spent $28 million for over 26,000 ads.

During the last month, among outside organizations in the first three weeks of October, Democratic-leaning groups are estimated to have spent 438 per cent more on advertising than they did four years ago, and Republican-leaning groups have increased their spending by 954 per cent.

Narrow focus on swing states

"Couple of weeks ago we surpassed the total amount of advertising in 2008, and so I think we'll easily exceed the million ads airing mark before election day is over," said Travis N. Ridout, a professor and one of the directors of the Wesleyan Media Project.

"They're advertising in fewer media markets, fewer states this year than in 2008. There are just really nine states, and no one outside of those nine states has really seen any advertising at all, and so you are getting these massive barrages of advertising in places like Denver, Colo., Las Vegas, Nev., and Cleveland, Ohio."

The increase in spending is due, in part, to the higher costs of advertising because of increased competition. Also, the Citizens United case has made it easier to get more money into the system than four years ago, Ridout said.

Bradley A. Smith, law professor and chairman and co-founder of the Center for Competitive Politics, rejected Wertheimer's argument that the money will have a corrupting influence on politicians, saying there's little evidence to support it.

He added that he has no problem with the amount of money being spent on these campaigns.

"It's not very much compared to many things," Smith said. "Compare it to what we spend on potato chips and Barbie doll accessories. Proctor and Gamble will spend $2 billion a year on advertising. It costs money to reach people."

With files from The Associated Press

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Sandy brings more rain, cold to Eastern Canada

The wrath of Sandy has come and gone, but weather forecasters say the post-tropical storm will bring rain, cool air and possibly flurries to Eastern Canada today as trick-or-treaters prepare for their annual Halloween ritual.

Southern and eastern Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes will experience scattered showers to heavy rain, but there may be snow in parts of northeastern Ontario, said CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland.

Many power lines in Toronto were downed, causing outages, after superstorm Sandy hit the city late Monday night. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

"The remnants of Sandy will continue to spread moisture into cooler air, which means flurries or light snow for some and a messy mix, including freezing rain, for others ... the good news is that the worst of the wet and windy weather is behind us," he said.

"But cloudy and cool weather will remain in place for trick-or-treating, and parents should be advised to keep the umbrella handy."

Sandy has grown in size, but weakened considerably in intensity, Scotland added.

"The biggest threats from Sandy today will be some heavy rain continuing today for the Maritimes and parts of eastern Quebec with 30 to 50-plus millimetres possible," he said.

Environment Canada said the Charlevoix region northeast of Québec City had already received 143 millimetres since Monday.

Further east in the Martimes there is a chance of thunderstorms, and while there is the risk of localized flooding, the weather is "far from extreme," said Scotland.

"Windy and wet is what they get for Halloween, but the heavy rain will taper off through the afternoon," he said.

Power restored to thousands

Cleanup in Eastern Canada continues after the superstorm's unrelenting winds and rain on Tuesday felled trees and tossed debris, leaving as many as 200,000 people without power and killing at least one woman.

Recovery efforts are also underway in the northeastern U.S., where Sandy's impact was far more widespread and deadly. The superstorm's storm surges, as much as four metres high, and lashing winds left millions without power and at least 55 dead.

The strongest winds in Ontario (106 km/h) were recorded on Western Island in Georgian Bay. In Quebec, Laval and Orléans experienced winds close to 90 km/h.

Wind warnings were in place for most of southern Ontario and Quebec, but were lifted by Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday morning, at least 7,700 homes and businesses were still without electricity in southern Ontario, Hydro One said, down from as many as 90,000 a day earlier.

Toronto Hydro reported up to 55,000 people were without power on Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning, electricity had been restored to all but 700 customers.

"Toronto Hydro estimates that more than 85 per cent of the outages were caused by tree limbs coming into contact with power lines, poles and transformers," it said in a statement. Toronto Hydro estimated that the cost of storm-related repairs could reach $1 million.

Projected path of post-tropical storm Sandy

Source: Canadian Press, Map data: NOAA, OpenStreetMap

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Another earthquake rattles B.C. coast

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Another earthquake has rattled the north coast of B.C.

The 6.2-magnitude tremor was recorded at 7:29 p.m. PT Monday at a depth of about 10 kilometres and was centred about 260 kilometres southwest of Prince Rupert, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There were no reports of injury or damage.

It is very close to the same area of Saturday's 7.7 magnitude quake.

The U.S. National Weather Service said the latest quake was not expected to generate a tsunami.

The tremor came as questions are being raised about the B.C. government's response to the weekend earthquake off the northwest coast, after officials took more than half an hour to issue a tsunami warning.

Seismologists say aftershocks like the latest one are normal. But Masset fire chief Stephen Grosse said that comes as little comfort to residents.

"People are like pins and needles around here right now," Grosse said. "People are too nervous. It scared them pretty bad. They still don't know who to trust, or if they should trust anybody."

Grosse said the rush to stock up on gas, water and non-perishibles left one gas station empty over the weekend.

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HMS Bounty captain still missing after Sandy sinks ship

U.S. Coast Guard officials continue to search for the captain of the Nova Scotia-built replica tall ship HMS Bounty, which sank Monday in high seas brought on by Hurricane Sandy.

A fixed-wing aircraft searched for Captain Robin Walbridge overnight, said Operations Specialist 1st Class Jacob Hyre with the U.S. Coast Guard in Portsmouth, Va.

"Through the night we had an HC-144 flying, the fixed-wing aircraft. This morning relieving it will be a C-130," Hyre told CBC News Tuesday morning.

"We also have the cutter Elm and we also have the Coast Guard cutter Gallatin en route in the search."

Hyre said the area of the search is about 83 square kilometres off the coast of North Carolina, close to where the crew decided to abandon ship after getting caught in 5.5-metre seas.

The Bounty sank several hours after the evacuation.

The 16 crew members of HMS Bounty tried to get to covered life-rafts but three of them were washed overboard in the process. One of the three people made it to the life-raft and was among the 14 people hoisted onto helicopters and taken to shore.

Walbridge, 63, and deckhand Claudene Christian, 42, were swept overboard and didn't make it to the life-rafts.

Robin Walbridge, captain of HMS Bounty, is missing at sea. (HMS Bounty website)

Christian was located by an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter on Monday evening and taken to Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, N.C., where she was pronounced dead.

CBC News spoke to Claudene Christian's mother on Monday morning as the rescue efforts began in the Atlantic Ocean. She said her daughter was "truly and genuinely happy" and had called before the journey "just in case she went down with the ship."

Christian was a descendant of Fletcher Christian, the master's mate who seized control of the original Bounty during Capt. William Bligh's voyage in 1789.

That story was turned into a 1962 movie starring Marlon Brando — Mutiny on the Bounty — for which the replica was built and launched in Lunenburg, N.S., in 1960. The ship has also appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest starring Johnny Depp.

The Facebook page of HMS Bounty called the ship sailing in Hurricane Sandy a "calculated decision" and said "a ship is safer at sea than in port."

Claudia McCann, Walbridge's wife, told CBC News her husband was trying to get around Hurricane Sandy en route to Florida.

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Sandy leaves 17 dead, 7 million without power in U.S.

More than 7 million people are without power throughout the eastern U.S. as post-tropical storm Sandy leaves a path of destruction, at least 18 dead, and a record-breaking storm surge that has flooded parts of the Eastern Seaboard, including New York City.

Exact details of the damage caused by Sandy have yet to be determined, but the impact is huge: Seventeen people are dead in the U.S., plus one in Canada, millions of people have no electrical power, and a record-breaking four-metre storm surge hit New Jersey and New York City, flooding streets and subway tunnels.

U.S. President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in parts of New Jersey, New York City and Long Island.

The declaration makes federal funding available to people in the area, which bore the brunt of the sea surge from the superstorm.

Standing along the banks of the Hudson River near Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, CBC's David Common said seven subway tunnels are full of water but the pumping process cannot begin due to power outages.

"This is really an island cut off right now," Common said.

The Associated Press reported the U.S. deaths happened in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia. Three of the dead were children, including an eight-year-old. Many of the deaths were attributed to falling trees. A woman in Toronto was killed by a falling sign that came apart in high winds.

After days of dire forecasts, warnings and mass evacuations in coastal areas, Sandy came ashore near Atlantic City, N.J., around 8 p.m. ET. Environment Canada said the storm's effects were felt as far as 1,000 kilometres away.

As of 5 a.m. ET Tuesday, the storm was approximately 145 kilometres west of Philadelphia, the U.S. National Weather Service said.

"Standing water combined with downed power lines will pose a threat for the coast, heavy rain across the northeast will bring the risk of flooding and west of the Appalachians heavy snow will continue to fall in places like West Virginia," CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland said.

The remnants of Sandy are expected to move to the west-northwest and then turn north into New York state Tuesday night. The storm's centre is expected to move into Canada on Wednesday.

Environment Canada said Sandy was expected to weaken "very rapidly" as it moves toward the eastern Great Lakes.

U.S. forecasters warned there was still potential for six-metre waves bashing into the Chicago lakefront and up to 90 centimetres of snow in West Virginia.

About 12,000 flights cancelled

About 12,000 flights were cancelled, train service was disrupted, roads were closed and schools and offices were shut down before the storm ever arrived.

Storm damage is already projected at $10 billion to $20 billion US, meaning it could prove to be one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

Dozens of homes were devastated by fire in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

A fire in the Queens neighbourhood of Breezy Point, which juts into the Atlantic, destroyed between 80 and 100 flooded homes. The area was in the flood zone, but it wasn't immediately clear if the storm directly caused the blaze. At least threepeople were injured.

CBC reporter Melissa Kent said police were out to prevent looting in lower Manhattan, where everything below 39th Street was still without power. Officials said it could be a week before power is restored.

A New York City hospital was forced to move out more than 200 patients, including 20 infants from neonatal intensive care, after its backup generator failed when the power was knocked out by the superstorm.

Dozens of ambulances lined up outside NYU Tisch Hospital on Monday night as doctors and nurses began the slow process of taking people to other hospitals.

Medical workers assist a patient into an ambulance during an evacuation of New York University's Tisch Hospital. (John Minchillo/AP)

Most of the power outages in lower Manhattan, where the hospital is located, were due to an explosion at an electrical substation, officials at Consolidated Edison said.

Other damage around New York included a construction crane atop a high-rise in mid-town Manhattan that collapsed, and a four-storey building in Chelsea that lost its facade.

At the height of the chaos, New York's 911 system was receiving 20,000 calls an hour, Common said.

"This is not yet in the clean-up phase," he said from Lower Manhattan. "This is still in the emergency phase."

The New York Stock Exchange remained closed Tuesday, the first weather-related two-day suspension of trading exchange since an 1888 blizzard.

Kent said officials with the Metropolitan Transport Authority expect the flooded subway tunnels to remain closed for anywhere from 14 hours up to four days. The MTA's chief, Joe Lhota, called it the worst disaster in the subway's 108-year-old history.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said late Monday that the worst of the rain had passed for the city, and that the high tide that sent water sloshing into Manhattan from three sides was receding.

New Jersey hit hard

In New Jersey, part of America's oldest nuclear power plant was put on alert after waters from superstorm Sandy rose 1.8 metres above sea level.

Officials said water levels near Oyster Creek, which is along the Atlantic Ocean, will likely recede within a few hours. The Oyster Creek nuclear plant went online in 1969 and provides 9 per cent of New Jersey's electricity. The plant was already out of service for scheduled refueling.

In addition, one of the units of the Indian Point nuclear plant, which is about 72 kilometres north of New York City, was shut down around 10:45 p.m. ET Monday, due to external electrical grid issues, said Entergy Corp., the plant's operator.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said 5,500 people were being housed in shelters, while the Red Cross was moving in to help provide meals for people.

Christie said 2.4 million households — double the number affected by Hurricane Irene — were without power.

He also advised against unnecessary travel, adding that 24 rail cars had been pushed by the tidal surge on to the New Jersey Turnpike.

Christie said it currently unsafe for homeowners to go back to the state's barrier island.

"The level of devastation at the Jersey Shore is unthinkable," he said.

In the town of Moonachie, N.J., a berm overflowed, sending about 1.5 metres of water into the community within 45 minutes. As many as 1,000 people may have to leave the town. Residents in a trailer park had to climb onto the roofs of their trailers to await rescue.

In Atlantic City, a popular New Jersey tourist destination, the storm washed away a section of the boardwalk. Parts of a seaside amusement park were also washed into the ocean.

Christie said he spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday to discuss the state's needs as the storm approached. Christie, an outspoken Republican, said he appreciated Obama's leadership in contacting him.

In Connecticut, the governor ordered non-essential state employees to stay home from work Tuesday.

According to WBUR, a public radio station in Boston, Sandy brought rough weather and strong surf to some coastal areas in Massachusetts. Hundreds of thousands of people in the state were without power late Monday, part of the sweeping outages that were leaving people in the dark in storm-affected areas.

People in parts of Pennsylvania were also being cautioned about power outages and wild weather.

Obama and Mitt Romney suspended their campaigning with just over a week to go before election day.

Obama declared emergencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, authorizing federal relief work to begin well ahead of time. He promised the government would "respond big and respond fast" after the storm hits.

With files from The Associated Press

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Will new voter ID laws swing the U.S. election?

With polls continuing to suggest a presidential election too close to call, attention has focused on what some critics refer to as voter suppression tactics and whether they could have a significant effect on such a tight race.

As with most election years, there have been regular media reports of such things as destruction of voter registration forms and allegations of voter intimidation. But more troubling for some are the suggestions that politicians, through the legislative process, are creating laws to disenfranchise certain voting groups.

The accusations of legislative suppression are mostly targeted at Republicans, who are criticized by some civil rights groups for creating new laws, in particular voter identification laws, that affect mostly poor or minority voters — a demographic more inclined to vote Democrat.

"When you pass a law to prevent a crime that is not occurring or that has not occurred in decades, one wonders what the purpose of the law is," Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard Kennedy School, told CBC News. "And when you know that in fact it is likely to have the consequence of putting an obstacle in the path of a certain percentage of voters, and very disproportionately people who are poor … it makes one wonder what is going on."

It's true that Republican-dominated state legislatures in some states have passed laws that could make voting more difficult. In Florida, laws were passed to limit the number of early-voting days, prohibit voting on the Sunday before the election and impose a 48-hour time limit on third-party voter groups to register new voters.

These laws, critics argue, disenfranchise certain voters. For example, some black Americans, many of whom like to cast their ballots on the Sunday before the election after attending church, would lose that opportunity to vote.

Anger over ID requirements

But the issue that has created the biggest political firestorm and accusations of voter suppression and racism by some groups are attempts to tighten voter identification laws.

"We must overwhelm the rising tide of voting suppression with the high tide of registration and mobilization and motivation and protection," Benjamin Todd Jealous, the CEO and president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said at the NAACP's national convention earlier this year.

"Simply put, the NAACP will never stand by as any state tries to encode discrimination into law," Jealous said.

These laws, opponents say, make it onerous for some groups to get the ID required to vote because of their financial resources and mobility issues. They also may be less likely to have driver's licences or passports and who might find it harder to miss work or lose pay to obtain proper ID.

ID hurdle

In Pennsylvania, laws there would require residents to have a birth certificate, a Social Security card and proof of residency.

"In large urban areas, especially among poor people, some of them don't have the kind of ID that would be acceptable. It's not just any ID, it has to be ID that is acceptable to the state," Richard Hasen, law professor at University of California at Irvine, told CBC News.

Hasen, author of The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown, said studies suggest voter ID fraud is hardly a problem.

"The claims that there's a major problem of voter fraud in our elections which requires voter ID is unsupported," Hasen said. "Voter fraud is not a major problem, certainly not the kind of fraud that would be prevented by a voter ID law.

"When we do have fraud in our elections, it typically involves absentee ballots, and voter ID laws don't do anything to stop absentee ballot fraud which tends to be vote buying."

But Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and a strong advocate for voter ID laws, told CBC News that it's still an issue that needs attention.

"[The opponents'] attitude is that unless it's massive we shouldn't do anything about it," said von Spakovsky, who co-authored the book Who's Counting: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk.

Von Spakovsky said, for example, there are laws against voter intimidation and that there have been only four or five cases prosecuted by the Justice Department since the establishment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

"But that doesn't mean we don't take steps to prevent," he said. "You take basic steps to secure any kind of process, whether it's a computer network or it's the voting process."

He denies trying to suppress voters of a certain demographic and pointed to Georgia and Indiana, which have had voter ID laws in place for five years. He said electoral results reveal that those laws have not depressed turnout of voters, black Americans or Democratic voters.

An issue to excite supporters on both sides

Hasen agreed that there's been a lot of exaggeration on how much these laws will suppress the vote.

"Although some Democrats would claim it would cause millions of voters to be disenfranchised, there's no proof of that. The effects seem to be much smaller," he said.

He said there's maybe a one per cent shift, and that you'd have to find voters who lack ID, couldn't get it in time and actually want to vote. Most voters tend to be people who have ID, he said.

As well, many of the battleground states in this election would be unaffected by the voter ID laws, he said. The courts have pushed back on much of the legislation, putting some ID laws, like those in Pennsylvania, on hold.

Hasen said he believes both the Republicans and Democrats are using the issue to their advantage.

"I think much of this on both sides is about getting the base excited and about fundraising."

With files from The Associated Press

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Sandy brings vicious winds, rain to Ontario, Quebec

Southern Ontario, Quebec and parts of the Maritimes continue to be lashed by superstorm Sandy — which has killed one woman in Toronto — as the massive weather system churns its way north.

The destructive post-tropical storm has already wheeled through the northeastern U.S. — where it has caused flooding, widespread power outages and more than a dozen deaths — and is now pummelling parts of Canada with strong winds and heavy rain.

The superstorm has left more than 200,000 people across Ontario and parts of Quebec without power, impeded Toronto transit systems, and triggered the cancellation of a quarter of all flights at Toronto Pearson Airport.

For forecasters, the superstorm's unrelenting winds are the greatest concern.

"Wind will be the biggest threat today, [but] it will diminish throughout the morning for Ontario," said CBC Meteorologist Jay Scotland.

"We're still just seeing it really ramping up into Atlantic Canada. Gusty winds certainly, but not as potent as what the U.S. northeast saw. There are some rainfall warnings also in effect for the Maritimes, pounding surf as well for the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes."

Southern Ontario is expected to bear the brunt of the storm today, with powerful winds being more of a concern for forecasters than the rain.

Environment Canada has ended wind warnings for most of southern Ontario. However, a warning remains in effect in Sarnia, in southwestern Ontario, which the agency says had among the highest gusts at 100 km/h.

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley told CBC News that waves on the community's shores reached six to nine metres overnight, the highest in recent memory.

"This is a storm reminding some people of Hurricane Hazel [in 1954], thank goodness not in the loss of life, but in the duration and anger of the storm." he told CBC News Tuesday.

"No one has seen the St. Clair River look like this for at least a generation."

While winds reached top speeds of 103 km/h overnight, the threat comes from prolonged winds at 40 to 60 km/h, said Scotland.

"We're used to dealing with powerful gusts that come with thunderstorms but sustained winds at this level spanning hours is a relatively rare occurrence in Ontario," he said.

Woman killed by storm-blown sign in Toronto

Those gusts claimed a life in Monday night in Toronto. Police say a woman was killed by a falling sign as winds of 65 km/h whipped the city.

Toronto Police sit at a taped off Staples outlet parking lot after strong storm winds caused a piece of a sign to fall, killing one, in Toronto on Monday. (Victor Biro/Canadian Press)

The woman, in her 50s, was hit in the head by a sign panel measuring about two-metres wide while walking in a commercial parking lot near Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue. The panel was ripped off by a strong gust of wind, police say. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sandy was unleashing its wrath on New York City at the time, but the Canadian Hurricane Centre said the impact of the weather system extended over a thousand kilometres from the storm's centre.

About 150,000 people in Ontario are without power, with an estimated 800 storm-related outages, said Energy Minister Chris Bentley in a statement.

The most heavily affected areas are Toronto, Waterloo, Peterborough, Owen Sound and Sarnia, he said.

As many as 55,000 people in Toronto were in the dark, Jennifer Link, a spokewoman for Toronto Hydro told CBC News. This figure has come down to roughly 45,000, as emergency crews work to resolve outages across the city, Toronto Hydro said.

An additional 90,000 people in several other communities across southern Ontario are without power, according to Hydro One.

And in Quebec, about 48,000 thousand homes and businesses in the province were without power. Roughly 28,000 of those customers are in the Laurentians, although the Lanaudiere and Monteregie regions were also affected.

Transportation woes

Meanwhile, the weather also caused transportation headaches.

Several Toronto buses and streetcars were being diverted due to fallen tree limbs, hydro poles and downed wires, according to the Toronto Transit Commission.

At Toronto's Pearson Airport, about 25 per cent of all incoming and departing flights were cancelled this morning in the wake of the superstorm.

Flights were also delayed or cancelled due to weather at Ottawa International Airport and Montreal-Trudeau Airport, according to their websites.

As well, gusts from Sandy on Monday caused a Nova-Scotia built tall ship to sink, leaving one crew member dead and the captain missing.

Wind warnings lifted except Sarnia, Quebec City

Wind warnings were in effect for much of southern Ontario, from southern Georgian Bay to Kingston, Ont., and along the St. Lawrence River, but were lifted by about 7 a.m. ET Tuesday.

A warning remains in effect in Sarnia, however. A wind warning also remains in place for the Quebec City region, the Canadian Hurricane Centre said.

Parts of southern Quebec and southwestern Nova Scotia will also be whipped by strong winds, but the gusts will not be blowing as hard as in Ontario.

As the storm swirls its way north, officials are urging people in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes to take precautions through the day.

At their strongest predicted point, today's winds could down trees, hurl debris through neighbourhoods, create difficulties for motorists on highways and even make it difficult to walk down a street, said Rob Kuhn, a severe weather meteorologist with Environment Canada's Ontario Storm Prediction Centre.

"If somebody loses their balance, they could get knocked over," he said.

Precipitation could turn to snow in Ontario, Quebec

Breaking waves along the southern shores of the Great Lakes also remains an issue, said Scotland.

Higher than normal water levels and pounding surf is expected along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia and along the St. Lawrence River. Forecasters are warning that some coastal flooding could be seen in the Quebec City region.

Downed powerlines closed a Toronto street on Oct. 30, a day after high winds and heavy rain caused by post-tropical storm Sandy damaged cars and property across the city. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

"[It] will likely be most pronounced in the Niagara Region and even more so south of Lake Huron as northerly winds are intensified with little friction over a long stretch on this north to south oriented lake," he said.

In Quebec, a storm surge warning is in effect for the St. Lawrence as gusty winds will pile water up on shore for those along the river.

Rain is also an issue today, but the showers, while they will be heavy, are likely to come in sporadic bursts.

Southern Ontario expects between 20-40 millimetres of rain, although some areas could see higher amounts, while southern and central Quebec could also see some showers, according to Environment Canada.

The precipitation could turn into snow over parts of Ontario and western Quebec, said Environment Canada.

The southwestern Maritimes are also likely to experience a soggy day with rain that could persist into Wednesday with total amounts which could exceed 50 millimetres.

Sandy expected to weaken by midday

Many Canadians living in Sandy's path have taken to Twitter and Facebook to discuss the power outages, rattling windows and damage to backyards caused by the storm. However, some fake photos of Sandy's aftermath were being circulated on various social media networks.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has said the military and the Canadian Coast Guard are on standby to help grapple with any havoc wreaked by Sandy.

Health Canada is conducting generator checks and has reviewed the National Emergency Stockpile, which contains supplies such as beds, blankets and antibiotics. Meanwhile, the Red Cross says it has 550 volunteers on standby in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces.

Sandy is expected to weaken through the day, notably starting around lunchtime, said Environment Canada meteorologist Etienne Gregoire.

"Typically, hurricanes, when they make landfall and become post-tropical [cyclones], they lose about 50 per cent of their energy in the first 24 hours. So we're going to see the remnants of Sandy really diminish in intensity through day," he told CBC News.

Environment Canada expects winds in Ontario to drop to between 40 and 60 kilometres per hour this afternoon and predicts gusts between 30 and 50 kilometres an hour by tonight.

Sandy made landfall in the U.S. Monday evening, just after forecasters stripped it of hurricane status, but the distinction was purely technical, based on its shape and internal temperature.

It still packed hurricane-force wind, and forecasters were careful to say it was still dangerous to the tens of millions in its path.

The storm killed 69 people in the Caribbean before making its way up the Atlantic.

Projected path for post-tropical storm Sandy

With files from the Canadian Press

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Giants sweep Tigers to win another World Series

Finally pressed in the World Series, the San Francisco Giants finished off a most unexpected and stunning sweep.

Marco Scutaro delivered one more key hit this October, hitting a go-ahead single with two outs in the 10th inning that lifted the Giants over the Tigers 4-3 in Game 4 on Sunday night in Deetroit.

Nearly eliminated over and over earlier in the playoffs, the Giants sealed their second title in three seasons when Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera looked at strike three right down the middle for the final out.

On a night of biting cold, stiff breezes and some rain, the Giants combined the most important elements of championship baseball — great pitching, timely hitting and sharp defence.

Series MVP Pablo Sandoval and the underdog Giants celebrated in the centre of the diamond at Comerica Park after winning six elimination games this post-season.

"Tonight was a battle," said Giants star Buster Posey, who homered. "And I think tonight was a fitting way for us to end it because those guys played hard. They didn't stop, and it's an unbelievable feeling."

Cabrera delivered the first big hit for Detroit, interrupting San Francisco's run of dominant pitching with a two-run homer that blew over the right-field wall in the third.

Posey put the Giants ahead 3-2 with a two-run homer in the sixth and Delmon Young hit a tying home run in the bottom half.

It then became a matchup of bullpens, and the Giants prevailed.

Ryan Theriot led off the 10th with a single against Phil Coke, moved up on Brandon Crawford's sacrifice and scored on Scutaro's shallow single. Center fielder Austin Jackson made a throw home, to no avail.

Sergio Romo struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th for his third save of the Series.

The Giants finished the month with seven straight wins and their seventh Series championship. They handed the Tigers their seventh straight World Series loss dating to 2006.

NL has won 3 in a row

"Obviously, there was no doubt about it. They swept us," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "So there was certainly no bad breaks, no fluke.

"Simple, they did better than we did."

An NL team won the title for the third straight season, a run that hadn't occurred in 30 years. Some find the streak surprising, considering the AL's recent dominance in interleague play. Yet as every fan knows, the club that pitches best in the post-season usually prevails.

Until the end, the Tigers thought one big hit could shift the momentum. It was an all-too-familiar October lament — Texas felt the same way when the Giants throttled them in 2010, and Tigers knew the feeling when St. Louis wiped them out in 2006.

Howling winds made it feel much colder than the 7 degrees Celsius at gametime. Two wrappers blew across home plate after leadoff man Angel Pagan struck out, and fly balls played tricks in the breeze.

The Giants started with their pregame ritual. They clustered around Hunter Pence in the dugout, quickly turning into a bobbing, whooping, pulsing pack, showering themselves with sunflower seeds. A big league good-luck charm, Little League style.

And once again, San Francisco took an early lead. Pence hit a one-hop drive over the centre-field fence for a double and Brandon Belt tripled on the next pitch for a 1-0 lead in the second.

The next inning, Cabrera gave the Tigers a reason to think this might be their night.

With two outs and a runner on first, Cabrera lofted an opposite-field fly to right — off the bat, it looked like a routine out shy of the warning track. But with winds gusting over 25 mph, the ball kept carrying, Pence kept drifting toward the wall and the crowd kept getting louder.

Just like that, it was gone.

Cabrera's homer gave Detroit its first lead of the Series, ended its 20-inning scoreless streak and reaffirmed a pregame observation by Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline.

"The wind usually blows to right at this time of year," Kaline said.

In the fourth, Max Scherzer and catcher Gerald Laird teamed on a strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play. Scherzer yelled, first baseman Prince Fielder clenched his fist and the Tigers ran off the field on a chilly, windy, rainy evening. At last, it seemed, all the elements were in their favour.

Trailing for the first time since Game 4 of the NL championship series, Posey and the Giants put a dent in Detroit's optimism. Scutaro, the NLCS MVP, led off the sixth with a single and clapped all the way around the bases when Posey sent a shot that sailed just inside the left-field foul pole for a 3-2 lead.

Posey, the only Giants player on the field from the starting lineup in the Game 5 clincher in 2010, almost tripped nearing first base and he watched the ball and began his trot.

Detroit wasn't about to go quietly, however. Young, the ALCS MVP, made it 3-all with another opposite-field homer to right, this one a no-doubt drive.

Fielder finished 1 for 14 (.111) for the Series.

All 24 teams to take a 3-0 lead in the World Series have won it all. In fact, none of those matchups even reached a Game 6. This was the first sweep for an NL team since Cincinnati in 1990.

Working on nine days' rest and trying to extend the Tigers' season, Scherzer kept them close into the seventh. Often recognized for his eyes — one is light blue, the other is brown — he's also known as a solid post-season pitcher.

Ditto-plus for Matt Cain, who was working on a nearly perfect year.

The Giants' ace threw a perfect game in June, was the winning pitcher in the All-Star game in July, beat Cincinnati to clinch the division series and topped St. Louis in Game 7 of the NL championship series.

After they left, the relievers decided it.

Octavio Dotel shouted, "Yeah! Let's go!" toward his dugout after striking out Posey to end the eighth. In the bottom half, winning pitcher Jeremy Affeldt got around a leadoff walk when he struck out Cabrera, a flinching Fielder and Young.

Coke returned the favour in the top of the ninth, fanning the side. With Jose Valverde having lost his closer role during a shaky month, Coke stayed in for the 10th and faltered.

The Giants became the first champion that hit the fewest home runs in the majors since St. Louis in 1982. Sandoval's three drives in Game 1 started San Francisco's romp, and its dominant pitching took over from there.

The parade to a sweep masked the problems San Francisco overcame to get this far.

Faced elimination 6 times

Closer Brian Wilson pitched only two innings before an elbow injury ended his year. All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera was suspended 50 games for a positive testosterone test, and not welcomed back when the ban ended. Two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum struggled and wound up in the bullpen.

Swept in a three-game set at Arizona to start the season, the Giants were floundering under .500 in mid-May. They soon hit their stride and, boosted by trade deadline deals for Scutaro and Pence, passed the Dodgers in the NL West for good in late August and posted 98 wins.

Getting past Cincinnati and St. Louis in the playoffs presented challenges. Down 2-0 in the best-of-five division series, they rallied for three straight victories in Cincinnati. Trailing the defending champion Cardinals 3-1 in the NLCS, they again took three in a row to advance, clinching in a driving rainstorm.

Six elimination games, six wins. Facing the Tigers, San Francisco proved it could play with a lead, too.

The Giants became the first NL team since the Big Red Machine in the mid-1970s to win two titles in a three-year span. Shut out for 56 years — Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds never won it all — their self-described "misfits" captured that elusive crown in 2010.

While many of the pitchers have remained, the lineup has seen quite a turnover. Posey, the NL batting champion, was the only position player to start Sunday night who also started the Game 5 clincher in 2010 at Texas.

The Tigers' flop finished off a season in which Cabrera became baseball's first Triple Crown winner since 1967. Detroit overtook the White Sox in the final week to win the AL Central and wound up at 88-74, the AL's seventh-best record.

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Canadians urged to prepare for Hurricane Sandy

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Canadian officials are urging those in the path of Hurricane Sandy to be ready for at least 72 hours without power, while forecasters warn that some areas of the country could see in excess of 50 millimetres of rain and winds climbing up 100 km/h or more.

The storm, moving up the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, has already caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights to and from Eastern Canada.

Wind warnings were posted by Environment Canada covering much of southern Ontario, along with parts of Eastern Ontario and western Quebec along the St. Lawrence River.

"Southern Ontario, southern Quebec and southwestern Maritimes will experience high wind gusts and periods of heavy rain beginning later today and continuing into Tuesday," Environment Canada said in a bulletin issued early Monday.

Heavy rainfall is expected as early as Monday afternoon in Ontario, Monday evening in Quebec and Tuesday morning in the Maritimes. Rainfall is expected to vary between 20 and 50 millimetres depending on the area.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre says parts of southern Ontario should brace for 90 km/h winds or higher, especially along western Lake Ontario, the Niagara escarpment, Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.

CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland said the southern shores of the Great Lakes will see the risk of pounding waves and some shoreline flooding.

"If you're in the Niagara Region [or] if you're south of [Lake] Huron towards Sarnia, northerly winds will be piling that water up on shore," Scotland said. "Avoid being near the shore. The waves are fun to look at, but you'll be doing a dangerous thing to take in those sights."

Environment Canada said strong winds with gusts exceeding 90 km/h could also batter parts of Quebec.

"The chances of the gusts in the 60 to 90 km/h range are greatest in the evening and overnight," said Environment Canada meteorologist Etienne Gregoire.

"Typically, when you get in that range, you see branches broken off. With trees having a fair amount of leaves and the ground relatively wet ... it's not impossible to see trees broken off and uprooted."

Gusts up to 80 km/h are expected along coastal areas of southwestern Nova Scotia, with slightly lower winds expected farther to the north and east, the weather agency said. The Maritimes will also experience some rainfall and strong winds, as well as large waves and pounding surf.

"We have forecast offshore winds to reach probably 120 km/h… and seas will be building west of Nova Scotia, in the Gulf of Maine and at the mouth also of the Bay of Fundy," said forecaster Jean-Marc Couturier at the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

"We would be expecting probably wave heights to reach five [to] six metres in that area."

Southwestern New Brunswick should expect up to 40 mms of rain tomorrow and up to 80 mm over the next couple of days, Couturier said.

Emergency stockpile

The Canadian Red Cross issued a statement Sunday urging people to prepare for the storm by stocking a number of supplies including water, food, flashlights and a first aid kit. Hurricane Sandy could down trees and power lines and cause flooding, the organization said.

"Be prepared to take care of yourself and your family for at least 72 hours in an emergency," Mike Morton, the Canadian Red Cross director of disaster management in Ontario, said in a release. "By taking some time now to store emergency food, water and other supplies, you can provide for your entire family during a power outage or evacuation."

Among items to consider for an emergency kit are:

• Four litres of water per person for each day of a 72-hour period (two litres for drinking, and two litres for washing)
• Enough non-perishable or canned food for each person for 72 hours, as well as enough food for pets
• A manual can opener
• A crank or battery-operated flashlight, with extra batteries
• A crank or battery-operated radio, with extra batteries
• Spare keys for the house and car
• A first aid kit
• Cash in small bills, in case power outages restrict the use of bank machines
• Other special needs items such as medications, baby formula, diapers and equipment for people with disabilities

People living in the affected areas are also being reminded to store anything outside their home that could become airborne.

"Our primary goal at this point is to make sure that everybody understands that this is going to be a serious storm and that they have a part to play, so they need to be thinking about making sure that anything that's outside is secured or taken in," said Allison Stuart, the chief of Emergency Management Ontario.

Air Canada, WestJet and Porter Airlines have all issued statements warning that flights to and from the U.S. northeast have been or will likely be cancelled in the coming days. Passengers are advised to checked the status of all flights.

More than 300 flight cancellations were posted on the website for Toronto's Pearson International Airport by mid-morning Monday.

Hurricane Sandy is currently on a northeast track off the coast of the U.S. but is projected to slam into the New York and New Jersey area before affecting Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. (Environment Canada)

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Hurricane Sandy nears eastern U.S. with 50 million at risk

A raging storm surge, high tides, wicked winds and driving rain have started pounding the northeast coast of the United States as millions of people hunker down for what could prove to be one of the most fearsome tempests on record in the country.

Mass transit in several cities — including New York — is shut down, more than 7,000 airline flights are cancelled, schools are closed, the floor of the world's biggest stock exchange is silent and the U.S. presidential candidates have had to cancel campaign events.

In all, 50 million people are threatened as Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall along the New Jersey coast Monday night and then collide with two other weather systems.

That's anticipated to create a superstorm in the most heavily populated corridor of the U.S., with the potential for havoc on an area stretching more than 1,250 kilometres from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.

"The latest model guidance has Sandy hitting the U.S. northeast this evening, with the official track showing landfall along the New Jersey and Delaware coast," CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland said.

"The biggest threats to life in the U.S. northeast will be first the surge, with coastal flooding, then the wind — loss of power for millions — followed by inland flooding from rain and, just west of the Appalachians, heavy snow."

Scotland said what's particular about Hurricane Sandy, currently classified as a Category 1 storm centered 487 kilometres southeast of New York City, are its immense size, the number of people it will impact and a mass of cold air that could enhance precipitation.

"Hurricane force winds extend as much as 300 kilometres outward from the storm's centre and tropical force winds extend up to over 800 kilometres. With this large of a wind field, widespread power outages will likely be the most notable impact from Sandy, with millions potentially left without power — which could remain out for days," Scotland said.

Transit shut down

Forecasters are warning that the New York area could get the worst of it — a three-metre wall of water.

New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore moved to shut down their subways, buses and trains, and said schools would be closed on Monday. Boston also called off school. And all non-essential government offices closed in Washington, D.C.

The New York Stock Exchange said it will be shut down Monday, including electronic trading. Nasdaq is shutting the Nasdaq Stock Market and other U.S. exchanges and markets it owns, although its exchanges outside the U.S. will operate as scheduled.

Several companies have postponed reporting their earnings as a result, including Pfizer Inc. and Thomson Reuters.

High winds blow sea foam onto Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina, one of several states that declared states of emergency. (Gerry Broome/AP)

"The time for preparing and talking is about over," U.S. Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate said Sunday as the hurricane made its way up the Atlantic. "People need to be acting now."

As rain from the leading edges of the monster hurricane began to fall over the U.S. Northeast, hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland to Connecticut were ordered to evacuate low-lying coastal areas, including 375,000 in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York City, 50,000 in Delaware and 30,000 in Atlantic City, N.J., where the city's 12 casinos were forced to shut down for only the fourth time ever.

"I think this one's going to do us in," said Mark Palazzolo, who boarded up his bait-and-tackle shop in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., with the same wood he used in past storms, crossing out the names of Hurricanes Isaac and Irene and spray-painting "Sandy" next to them.

"I got a call from a friend of mine from Florida last night who said, 'Mark, get out! If it's not the storm, it'll be the aftermath. People are going to be fighting in the streets over gasoline and food.' "

The CBC's David Common, reporting from Manhattan, said the big problem is there isn't necessarily rainfall but the storm surge and resulting flooding.

"Streets flooding, homes flooding, rivers running over their banks and spilling off into other neighbourhoods — that's the big concern," Common said. "That's why we've seen these mandatory coastal evacuations and mandatory evacuations in the city for low-lying areas."

Shows on Broadway and at the New York's Carnegie Hall were cancelled Sunday night and Monday, amid the risk that theatregoers would be stranded by the transit shutdown.

Winds hit 139 km/h

Sandy, whose sustained winds intensified to 139 km/h as of Monday morning at 8 a.m. ET, was blamed for 65 deaths in the Caribbean before it began travelling northward, parallel to the eastern seaboard.

After it makes landfall, it's expected to cut across into Pennsylvania and travel up through New York State on Wednesday.

Forecasters said the combination of Sandy and the two other weather systems could bring close to 300 millimetres of rain in places, a potentially lethal storm surge of one to three metres across many of the coastal areas, and punishing winds that could cause widespread power outages that last for days. The storm could also dump up to 60 centimetres of snow in Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia.

The storm surge will be exacerbated by a full moon, which elevates tides and ocean waves.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned: "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."

New Jersey's famously blunt Gov. Chris Christie was less polite: "Don't be stupid. Get out."

A woman runs off a sand dune near Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on Hatteras Island Sunday, as the storm worked its way north. (Steve Earley/The Virginian-Pilot/AP)

The United Nations said it would close its headquarters in Manhattan on Monday and cancelled all meetings there.

In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama promised the government would "respond big and respond fast" after the storm hits.

"My message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there, and we will cut through red tape. We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules," he said.

Obama cancelled a campaign event in Virginia on Monday, as did his rival Mitt Romney on Sunday.

With files from The Associated Press

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Woman 'appalled' how U.S. site spread 'dirt' about her

A young Saskatoon mom is speaking out against an American gossip website that posted vicious comments about her sex and social life, written by people she can't identify.

"I was just so embarrassed. Yes — I have made my mistakes I have to live with … but I am back at school and trying to put this all behind me," said 23-year-old Kendra Olesen.

"None of it should ever be posted publicly like that — on a site where I can't take it down."

Someone submitted an anonymous post about her last winter to the popular, controversial American site "The Dirty," run by self-described internet celebrity Nik Richie, who is based in Arizona.

Richie allows anyone to submit "dirt" about someone else, which he then posts, without verifying whether it is accurate. His site includes sections for several Canadian cities, with hundreds of posts about Canadians.

"I went on and was completely appalled at what I had seen," said Olesen.

All anonymous

The submission about Kendra claimed she drinks and drives and sleeps around, among other things. Several other people also posted rude comments, many who don't know her.

"Everybody has partied. Everybody has gone out drinking and it's just — why did they attack me so badly?" she said. "Half of it wasn't even true."

The Dirty invites people to 'submit dirt' about people, which is then posted without verifying its accuracy. (CBC)

The expose came a few weeks after someone — possibly the same person — keyed her new car, engraving it with derogatory names. Someone also messaged her friends on Facebook — under a fake name— claiming Olesen had a sexually transmitted disease, which she also said was not true.

Olesen said she thinks she knows who is responsible, but can't prove it.

"This person clearly has some sort of long-held hatred towards me that I just can't even describe. Because I could never do anything like that to somebody else," she said.

Suicide attempt

Olesen said she was so devastated by the post and comments on The Dirty — shown on a page with her name and pictures — that she attempted suicide by overdosing on prescription drugs.

"I didn't want to go out. I didn't want to leave my house. I was very withdrawn," Olesen said. "[The site] is ruining a lot of people's lives — and it's awful."

Her worst fear, she said, was that her six-year-old twins, whom she gave birth to when she was a teen, would see the posts.

"In a couple of years, all they would have to do is type in my name and that's the first thing that pops up. I never want them to have to read that. Never," said Olesen.

Nik Richie, owner of The Dirty, told the Dr. Phil show his website is a form of entertainment and is there to hold people accountable for their actions. (Dr. Phil)

Olesen lives with her parents — who adopted her children when they were born — and is now studying to become an engineer. She wrote to Richie, through his website, asking him to remove the posts about her.

"I heard nothing. I got nothing back," she said.

When B.C. teen Amanda Todd committed suicide after being tormented online, Olesen said she decided to go public about her ordeal.

"I am so much better now. I am getting the support that I need and the help that I need to get through this, but it's just something I want gone forever."

Her mother said she is proud of Olesen for taking a stand and speaking out.

"It's affected our family — and her children — in such a way that we want to be able to make a positive, by coming forward and saying we don't want this to continue," said Val Foulds-MacLeod.

"This has happened to my kid. It can happen to anybody," said Foulds-MacLeod. "It's like a life of its own once this machine gets started … and there is not one thing you can do about it."

Richie has been sued and vilified by some critics in the U.S.

He declined to be interviewed by Go Public. However, he has publicly defended what he does, by pointing out there is demand for it.

"My site is a form of entertainment.… It's a business," Richie said on the Dr. Phil show in 2010. "It's a form of holding people accountable for their actions.

"I think it's the new way of social media —and it is definitely revolutionary."

Canadians called 'whiny'

Richie's lawyer told Go Public he's received about a dozen letters from lawyers representing Canadians who want to sue him for defamation.

"You guys are very thin-skinned from what I can tell," David Gingras told Go Public.

"I get so many letters from Canadians and they are very, like, whiny. If you guys don't like the internet then you are going to have to turn it off."

Kendra Olesen and her mother Val Foulds-MacLeod are speaking out because they hope to help others who have been affected. (CBC)

Gingras said that even if someone filed and won a suit in Canada, they wouldn't be able to collect from The Dirty. The company has no assets in Canada and U.S. law doesn't allow foreign defamation awards to be enforced there.

Gingras also said that what Richie is doing is perfectly legal in the U.S.

"This is a very black and white thing. Websites in the United States can't be held responsible for material posted by users," said Gingras.

"A lot of people I've dealt with over the years have come to The Dirty and said, 'Look, I am begging you, please I am so hurt by this. And for whatever reason Nik turns a blind eye. He doesn't help them. And ultimately they wind up being stronger for it."

Go Public emailed Richie, explaining Olesen had contacted him about taking her post down, but hadn't heard back. He replied, saying he would remove it immediately.

"This is the first I have heard of it or of her … I will remove," Richie replied.

When Go Public told him Olesen was trying to turn her life around, he wrote, "Looks like the wakeup call worked then. Give Kendra my best and I wish her continued success. Post removed."

CBC email goes awry

However, at one point, the CBC became part of the story.

The CBC producer who first talked to Olesen wrote an email, intended for Go Public reporter Kathy Tomlinson, saying he still believed Richie is "the scum of the earth," adding "Creepy doesn't begin to describe it."

He mistakenly sent that email to Richie, who responded by posting the email exchange on his website, along with criticism of the CBC.

The comments about Olesen, which have since been removed, attacked her on many fronts. (CBC)

He also said Olesen's post would stay up after all.

"So Kendra when this hate story comes out and the world wonders why I'm such an asshole your post is still up because of IDIOTS … the definition of true journalism," Richie wrote on The Dirty.

Olesen then wrote to Richie again, appealing to him directly, and soon afterward, he did remove the posts about her.

"This is happening even to people who are even younger than me," said Olesen. "I can't even imagine what they are going through."

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Family mourns girl killed in Alberta classroom crash

The family of the Grade 6 girl who died after being pinned by a minivan that crashed into her classroom in St. Paul, Alta. on Thursday says she was a happy girl with a passion for dance.

Megan Wolitski died in an Edmonton hospital on Friday.

"We would like Megan to be remembered for the incredible girl that she was. She loved her family and loved to take care of her sister and baby cousins," her family wrote in an emailed statement.

Megan Wolitski died in hospital Friday, one day after a minivan crashed into her Grade 6 classroom, injuring her and seven classmates. (Les Miskolzie)

Megan and two other girls were critically injured when a van smashed through a ground-floor window of Racette Junior High School on Thursday morning. All three were flown to Edmonton hospital. One was upgraded to stable condition on Thursday afternoon.

Five other students were taken to hospital in St. Paul.

"We ask that you pray for her classmates who are still recovering from their serious injuries," the statement said.

Megan's family said she was a Girl Guide who was looking forward to an upcoming trip to Switzerland with her unit.

Police have charged the driver of the van, Richard Edward Benson, 46, with three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, one count of resisting arrest and one count of possession of marijuana.

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'Like a massive wind': B.C. earthquake stories

Did you feel the quake?

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As a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Haida Gwaii on Saturday evening, residents along the B.C. coast shared their accounts of the moment the quake struck.

Most reported a shaking, swaying or rumbling that lasted anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute.

• "It wasn't a big shake — it just was a continuing rolling feeling that went on for ... perhaps a minute." — Robin Rowland, Kitimat, B.C.
• "It almost felt like a massive wind was making the whole home shake." — Leisha Grebinski, Prince Rupert, B.C.
• "It started off with just a small rumble ... and then things started to shake a little, and then things started shaking a lot." — Peter Mark, Masset, B.C.
• "[I] was sitting on my couch, with the laptop, when I started to feel motion that made me feel queasy. Noticed that our heavy swag lamp was swaying back and forth. Stood up and could feel the motion through the carpeting. We live in a basement suite and I think that the motion lasted about 15 to 20 seconds, perhaps." — Leslie Allen, Prince George, B.C.
• "Felt a 'swoon' — at the same time everything hanging started to sway so strongly that it took 30 minutes plus for them to settle back into equilibrium." — Sharon MacKenzie, Quadra Island, B.C.
• "The whole house was flexing and oscillating. The lights went out and the shaking continued and I could hear all kinds of crashing." — Nick Finley, Tlell, Haida Gwaii, B.C.
• "The house seemed to be moving — plants, light fixtures, sun catchers in the window swayed and clattered ... About 10 minutes before they stopped swaying." — Marion Lawson, Kamloops, B.C.
• "The whole house swayed for over a minute. My wife said it felt like she had sea legs. Phones were out for a short time but we never lost power." — Ken Newman.

Residents as far away as Alberta and Yukon reported feeling the earthquake.

• "It felt similar to light earthquakes we have experienced here with hanging plants and lamps swaying significantly." — Philip Merchant, Whitehorse, Yukon.
• "I noticed my hanging plants and wind chimes in my living room swaying, and then found out a while later that an earthquake had hit the coast of B.C., near Haida Gwaii." — Evelyn Rook, St. Alberta, Alta.
• "I felt the quake ... doors swinging and lights swinging from the 11th floor of an office tower." — Bryan Petzold, Edmonton.

• [View the story "B.C. earthquake, tsunami advisory" on Storify]

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Hawaii tsunami warnings end after strong B.C. quake

Canada's strongest earthquake in more than 60 years has struck off British Columbia's coast, triggering tsunami warnings from the Washington border to Vancouver Island and as far away as Hawaii. But the warnings were cancelled early Sunday, several hours after they were issued.

The magnitude 7.7 quake struck at 8:04 p.m. PT Saturday and was centered off Haida Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands. It could be felt as far away as Edmonton and Yukon.

There were more than 10 aftershocks measuring at least 4 in magnitude. The strongest were 5.8 and 4.8.

Residents near the centre of the quake said the violent jolting from the initial tremor lasted for up to a minute, but no injuries or major damage have been reported.

Residents of Haida Gwaii reported a 90-minute power failure.

Tsunami warnings were issued for the North Coast, the Haida Gwaii islands, parts of the central B.C. coast, the coast of Alaska and for the Hawaiian islands.

Early Sunday morning the warnings were downgraded to advisory status, meaning evacuations were no longer necessary.

But much of the B.C. coast, including the northern and southern ends of Vancouver Island, remained under an advisory overnight Sunday, indicating a tsunami could produce strong currents that would be dangerous to those near the water.

"We're very very grateful and thankful that we can go home tonight, counting our blessings," Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie told reporters after the tsunami warnings was downgraded.

"The water is still treacherous, still dangerous, and the beaches still need caution, but we can go home," he said.

Hours after the earthquake, Dennis Sinnott, who works at the Institute of Ocean Sciences, said the largest wave hit Langara Island, a northern Haida Gwaii island, and measured just 69 centimetres.

'It was just pure hell there for a while.'—Resident of Queen Charlotte City

There were evacuations in Haida Gwaii and Port Edward, near Prince Rupert. Officials say it's not clear how many people have been driven from their homes.

"It looks like the damage and the risk are at a very low level," Shirley Bond, British Columbia's minister responsible for emergency management said. "We're certainly grateful."

The quake shook homes in several B.C. communities, including Sandspit, Surrey, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Kitimat, Prince George and Quesnel.

"I thought right away, we're having a big landslide," said Dave Martinek lives in Queen Charlotte City on the island, describing the quake.

B.C. earthquake stories

"And then it progressed and kept on progressing, and the whole house was just shaking — pictures on the walls.

"I got my son, who was having a nap. He was stablizing the book shelves. The windows and everything were just creaking. We have two cats and one cat was deliberating throwing herself at the door trying to get out of the house. It was just pure hell there for a while."

Visitors and Oahu residents in Honolu watch the water level in Ala Wai Harbour while waiting for the arrival of a tsunami Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in Honolulu. (Eugene Tanner/Associated Press)

Low-lying areas in the Hawaiian islands were evacuated late Saturday. Geophysicists had feared waves between 1 and 1.9 metres to hit the Hawaii islands, beginning about 10:30 p.m. local time Saturday (4:30 a.m. ET Sunday ET). But Hawaii seems to have been spared the worst.

Four waves about 12 minutes apart have already come ashore, but seismologists say they were smaller than expected.

Sirens sounded every half hour, starting around 7:30 p.m. local time, warning of a tsunami approaching Hawaii. The Honolulu police ordered the streets evacuated and shops closed. Tourists in beachfront hotels were told to stay above the fourth floors.

Earth plates in quake zone slide horizontally

Brent Ward, an earth scientist at Simon Fraser University, said the earthquake was the second largest to hit the country since 1949, when another earthquake was recorded in the same area with a magnitude of 8.1.

Ward said the area is known as the Queen Charlotte fault, where the earth's plates slide horizontally across each other in a strike-slip action, similar to what happens along California's San Andreas fault.

"Stresses build up because of that movement, and every so often we get the release of that stress in the form of an earthquake."

Ward said he wasn't surprised the tsunami warning was shortlived because the strike-slip movement along the fault doesn't generally trigger tsunamis.

"To trigger a tsunami you need to have a vertical movement of the sea floor, and it's that vertical movement that displaces water and triggers the tsunami," he said. "Because it's sliding across each other, you're not generally moving the water."

With files from The Canadian Press

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Hurricane Sandy treks parallel up U.S. southeast coast

Forecasters say Hurricane Sandy is roaring northeastward on an offshore track parallel to the Southeast coast off the Carolinas.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sandy will continue moving parallel to the coast most of the day and approach the coast of the mid-Atlantic states by Monday night.

At 5 a.m. ET Sunday, it was centered about 400 kilometres south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The vast storm system had 120 km/h sustained winds. Little change in strength in the large storm is expected while it remains offshore.

Forecasters say tropical storm conditions are spreading over North Carolina's coastline and gale-force winds should begin being felt along portions of the mid-Atlantic coast later Sunday with higher winds likely after that.

As the storm heads inland and weakens, southern and eastern Ontario could see between 50 and 100 millimetres of rain late Monday and early Tuesday. A wet weather system is stalled out in the region, and this system is expected to merge with the remnants of the storm inching north and then northwest from the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

Bob Robichaud of the Canadian Hurricane Centre says wind speeds in affected areas of Canada could average 80 km/h by Monday evening. In southwest Nova Scotia, winds could reach 90 to 100 km/h.

The White House says President Barack Obama is cancelling campaign appearances in Northern Virginia on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday so he can monitor Hurricane Sandy. The storm is currently forecast to make landfall along the Eastern seaboard at that time.

Obama is still scheduled to make campaign visits to Orlando, Fla., and Youngstown, Ohio Monday before returning to the White House. Other changes to the campaign schedule will be announced as warranted.

The White House says Obama is being regularly updated on the storm. He has directed his team to work to bring all available resources needed by state and local governments preparing for the storm, which could affect a third of the country with high winds, heavy rains and flooding.

Environment Canada says the storm will lose strength as it turns inland.

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Conrad Black on humility, the BBC and embracing Canada

Former media baron Conrad Black is resolute that he has been tarnished by "false charges" and defended his huffy TV interview with the BBC, after having served three years behind bars in the U.S. for fraud and obstruction of justice.

In an interview with CBC's Susan Ormiston, Black also mused about whether he would be stripped of his Order of Canada and defended accusations that he has shown little remorse for the crimes he was convicted of.

"I have no obligation to you or any of your viewers to share humility, I was falsely charged," he told Ormiston. "I'm a law-abiding person, I'm a conscientious person, I believe in the confession and repentance of wrongdoing and I believe in the punishment of crime, and I do not have to go around in sackcloth and ashes to satisfy a bunch of CBC viewers."

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Student dies after Alberta classroom crash

A student died one day after a minivan crashed into a classroom at a school in St. Paul, Alta. on Thursday.

The news was confirmed by St. Paul education superintendent Glen Brodziak.

"We are absolutely devastated and our deepest condolences go out to all the family," he said.

The girl, a Grade 6 student at Racette Junior High School, is not being identified.

Richard Edward Benson, 46, who lives in the St. Paul area, was charged with three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, one count of resisting arrest and one count of possession of marijuana.

Richard Benson appeared in a 2010 story in the St. Paul Journal. (Courtesy of the St. Paul Journal)

He will appear in provincial court Monday and remain in custody until then.

CBC News has learned Benson has a lengthy criminal record, dating back to 1992, which includes several driving offences.

He is scheduled to go on trial in April for a dangerous driving charge from April 2011.

Suspect co-operating with police

Police are still waiting for analysis on a blood sample taken from the driver, which may lead to further charges, said RCMP Chief Supt. Randy McGinnis.

But police may never learn how fast the minivan was travelling because falling snow made taking measurements difficult, he said.

Benson, who was "combative" when arrested, is now co-operating with police, said McGinnis.

"This morning he was very remorseful, very apologetic of what has transpired and co-operated fully with our investigation," he said.

Ralph Benson, brother of the accused, said that Richard suffered from seizures ever since he was badly beaten in Mayerthorpe a decade ago.

The beating left him in a coma. He has a plate in his head and takes medication for seizures.

"Right now he should be inside of a hospital," Ralph Benson said. "Not sitting in a police cell."

Richard can be disoriented when he comes out of a seizure, which could account for his "combative" nature with police after the crash, his brother said.

"I mean he's fighting for his life when he comes out of that seizure," Ralph Benson said. "He's had seizures here with us and it is a very freaky situation … he goes like into a convulsion. His muscles spasm, his muscles cramp up on him."

Benson said that Richard had a seizure as recently as Sunday. In an interview with The Canadian Press, Benson said that Richard was cleared to get his driver's licence back several years ago.

"We feel horrible. I mean we have children too. We have family," Ralph Benson said.

Three Grade 6 students were left in critical condition and five others injured after the minivan crashed into the school Thursday morning.

Two students remain in hospital in Edmonton.

3 students pinned by minivan

Police said one child was pinned against the wall while two others were pinned while sitting in their desks.

The scene was chaotic as police and firefighters fought with the suspect while trying to rescue students, said McGinnis.

"There was a huge issue with safety because this vehicle came to rest on the desks in the classroom and there was great fear the vehicle may have tipped, come off the desks and land straight on top of the students that were underneath," he said.

"The staff at Racette school were paramount in keeping him in the vehicle and not rocking the vehicle off the desks onto the students," he said.

Witnesses told CBC News that before the crash, a white minivan was racing through back alleys in St. Paul.

St. Paul RCMP lead a suspect from the crash scene Thursday. (Courtesy of the St. Paul Journal)

The vehicle left the road and drove into the side of the classroom where Grade 6 students of Racette Junior High School were taking French. The class was being held in the old Glen Avon School building.

The school was closed Friday to allow officials to evaluate the structural integrity of the building.

Classes will also be cancelled Monday and students will be relocated to the high school Tuesday, said Brodziak.

In the meantime, people in the community are trying to deal with the tragedy. A vigil is scheduled at the school for 5 p.m. today.

"I just pray for the kids …fighting for their lives," said Sandra Duquette, one of the organizers. "I pray for their families. It's just touched the whole community. We will be here at 5 o'clock definitely to light the candles."

St. Paul is about 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

With files from The Canadian Press

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