Philadelphia as New Orleans?

We are still five days out, but the cone track of Hurricane Sandy does not look promising for the city of Philadelphia. The center of the cone is tracking to the mouth of the Deleware River on Tuesday morning and if this holds (or keeps to something similar, Sandy could push significant storm surge up the Deleware River and into downtown Philadelphia.

Philadelphia obviously does not have the levy system that New Orleans has, nor is it below sea level. It is a major port with most of downtown being at or just above sea level. Any significant storm surge would meet little resistance as it comes up the river.

Making matters even more interesting is the fact that this storm is looking to come ashore one week before the election. If there is significant damage done to the area, it is possible that power might not be restored to sections of the Eastern seaboard by the following Tuesday. I don't know what kind of back up plans are in place, but alternate polling locations would have to be set up and those polling locations would have to rely on back up paper ballots.

This is obviously a worst-case scenario, but one to keep in mind as Sandy tracks closer to the US over the next few days.