Deadly storm floods and blacks out Manhattan, cripples coastal cities

Hurricane Sandy has made landfall in New Jersey, driving a deadly tidal surge into coastal cities along east coast of the United States and pushing ferocious winds, torrential rain and heavy snow deep inland.

The mega-storm made landfall in New Jersey near Atlantic City around 8pm local time (8am Singapore time) according to the National Hurricane Centre (NHC), plunging hundreds of thousands into darkness and flooding subways and the usually bustling streets of New York.

The NHC has downgraded Sandy to a post-tropical cyclone, but said it remained hurricane-force at around 140 kilometres per hour.

At least 13 people were reportedly killed in the United States and Canada on Monday as the storm extended hundreds of miles in diameter across the densely populated US East Coast, toppling trees, downing power lines and sending debris hurtling through the air.

Elsewhere along the East Coast, a US sailor on board a replica of the HMS Bounty was recovered from the sea in an "unresponsive" condition, and the captain was missing and feared dead after the tall ship went down off the Carolinas.

Click through the gallery to witness the devastation that Hurricane Sandy has brought upon the United States so far