Washington hollowed out amid hurricane fears

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Washington, D.C., seemed like a ghost town Monday amid day-long rain and wind, with traffic and pedestrians scarcely seen.

As powerful Hurricane Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard, federal, state and local government workers were told to stay home.

Sandy, marching along the East Coast toward New York and Boston, promised to bring the worst storm damage to the U.S. in at least a decade.

The entire public transit system, including the Metro linking D.C. with main residential areas in Virginia and Maryland, suspended operations as a precaution.

All schools in the D.C. area, as in many states in the eastern part of the country, were closed as well. It was hard to find a restaurant doing business.

Major events organized by governments, think tanks and other groups were canceled, with embassies here taking a day off.

The Washington Foreign Press Center sent an email early in the morning notifying reporters that it will be closed Monday.

The Korea Economic Institute also called off a special briefing for South Korean correspondents here on the status and prospects of the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

"Due to Hurricane Sandy and everyone's safety, we have decided to cancel the Korea media briefing on the Romney campaign," said Sarah Yun, director of public affairs at KEI.

The Center for a New American Security, a research institution, rescheduled "A Conversation with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta," originally slated for Monday evening at a Washington hotel, to Nov. 20.