Airlines, trains impacted by Sandy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - As Hurricane Sandy barrels down on the East Coast, potentially targeting 50 million people, its impact could be felt throughout northeast Indiana.

Aside from forecasted high winds and rain , local airlines and train travel and business could be slowed Monday and the days following.

Airlines in the northeast have already canceled more than 7,000 flights. Some of the nation's busiest airports in New York and Washington D.C. have stranded passengers and idling aircraft as the storm's winds and torrential rains pound the region.

Flight delays and cancelations are already affecting air travel in Detroit and Chicago, two cities that connect hundreds of daily passengers from Fort Wayne International Airport .

Click here to check FWA flight information.

According to the FWA website, eleven flights are scheduled to depart Fort Wayne and arrive in either Chicago or Detroit Monday. Ten flights are scheduled to arrive from those destinations.

Amtrak has already started canceling train service on its northeast corridor. Connecting trains to and from the northeast pass through Amtrak's Waterloo station.

Click here to check Amtrak train status.

With the aftermath of the storm unpredictable, it's not clear how long airline and train service will be disrupted.

Late Sunday, NYMEX announced it would close all U.S. Markets because of mandatory evacuations in parts of New York City. The closure includes the Chicago Board Options Exchange which will impact several business throughout Indiana.

As a result of the widespread impact of Hurricane Sandy , which is expected to be a strong low pressure when it makes landfall, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is mobilizing resources from all across the country.

Paramedics and ambulances from Warsaw are headed to New Jersey with groups of other emergency services across Indiana.

Indiana Michigan Power , a division of American Electric Power, is sending crews to parts of West Virginia to assist with the potential of power outages. AEP serves almost one million customers in a region consisting of Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee.

The Red Cross of Northeast Indiana is sending five people with an Emergency Response Vehicle to various states. The group's website said two people are going to Albany, New York, and two others are going to Pennsylvania. One person is headed to Baltimore.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service on Monday said Hurricane Sandy is maintaining winds around 75 mph. The center, or eye, is expected to be near the mid-Atlantic coast Monday night.

It's currently moving north around 14 mph and will make a hard turn towards the coast later today. Sandy will eventually run into a wintry storm moving across the eastern portion of the United States which is expected to bring several feet of snow in parts of the Appalachians.

Storm surges along the coastline could reach upwards of twenty feet in some areas, threatening low-level coastal populations. Mayors and Governors across several states have pleaded with residents to get out of the way of the storm's massive path.