'Sandy' videos draw huge audience

As the total death toll from Hurricane Sandy reaches close to 100 in the US, interest in videos showing the havoc wreaked by the storm continues unabated.

Dramatic footage depicting key events during the storm is appearing on video hosting sites such as youtube.com.

One of the most watched videos showing the storm as it raged across the US east coast is of an explosion at a Con Edison power station on 14th Street in New York.

The explosion, which resulted in almost every street below Times Square in the city's Midtown district being plunged into darkness on Monday night, was caught on video and quickly uploaded to youtube and has attracted over 6.8m viewers.

One of the earliest reported emergencies was of the rescue of crew members from the replica HMS Bounty. The ship, which sank 125 miles (201 km) off the southeast coast of Hatteras, North Carolina, was originally built for the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty film starring Marlon Brando and it was featured in several other films over the years, including one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

One crew member, Claudene Christian, died in hospital and captain Robin Wallbridge remains missing. Over 1m youtube viewers have watched the US coast guard video showing the rescue of fourteen crew members from life rafts in the Atlantic Ocean.

A video shot by cyclist Casey Neistat as he toured south Manhattan during the tidal surge makes for compelling viewing.  Neistat, who at times is waist deep in water, manages to paint a disturbing picture of how the city succumbed to the elements in just a matter of hours.

Scenes from East 8th Street and Avenue C before the blackout has attracted over 1.3 million viewers and shows cars submerged in flood waters.

The New York Times published a time-lapse video today shot from the 51st floor of the newspaper's building in Manhattan showing the storm as it swept across the city. The video shows the lights going out in skyscrapers as the electricity supply fails.

The following Nasa produced time-lapse video compiled from satellite images taken every minute from 6.00am to 6.30pm on October 29th shows the evolution of the storm from dawn to dusk.