A woman watches waves crash onto a pier on City Island in New York. Americans got an unparalleled view of the unprecedented storm hitting the eastern United States from the dozens of live webcams set up in the region.

Americans got an unparalleled view of the unprecedented storm hitting the eastern United States from the dozens of live webcams set up in the region.

Officials were urging people to avoid heading to the shore for pictures, but they could watch the 's impact in real time—assuming they had an Internet connection.

Webcams which normally are used for tourism promotion were being monitored along the coast from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

Others with a view of the impact included webcams monitoring the World Trade Center building going up in lower Manhattan and some privately operated webcams along the path of Hurricane Sandy.

Some cams, particularly in the area in New Jersey where Sandy was hitting early Monday, were experiencing technical problems.

Updated pictures of the storm were also being posted on social networks including Instagram and Tumblr.

set up an interactive map that tracks the path of the storm, provides real-time precipitation figures in areas already hit by the outer edges of Sandy and locates the user's nearest active emergency shelter.

The map also enables people to locate webcams already set up in affected areas to watch as the storm unfolds, as well as videos posted on showing the situation in various locations, including images of choppy seas or flooding.

(c) 2012 AFP