Close to 400,000 people were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the north-eastern US as cities and towns were braced for the onslaught of a “superstorm” threatening some 60m people along the country’s most heavily-populated corridor.

Tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the north eastern United States today as big cities and small towns across the US Northeast braced for the onslaught of a superstorm threatening some 60 million people along the most heavily populated corridor in the nation.