Sandy batters US coast
Millions of people were left reeling in the aftermath of monster storm Sandy yesterday as New York City and a wide swathe of the eastern United States struggled with epic flooding and massive power outages.
The death toll from Sandy has risen to 32 in the United States and Canada, and was feared to climb further as several people remained missing, officials said.
At least eight million homes and businesses are without power because of the storm, said the US Department of Energy.
Officials in the states of Connecticut, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia all reported deaths from the massive storm system, while Toronto police said a Canadian woman was killed by flying debris.
Sandy had already killed at least 67 people as it swept through the Caribbean over the past few days, meaning the overall toll from the storm is now 99.
In New York City, 10 people have been killed. More than 15,000 flights were cancelled, the flight-tracking website FlightAware estimates.
Sandy, which crashed ashore with hurricane-force winds in New Jersey overnight as the biggest storm to hit the country in generations, swamped parts of New York's subway system and Manhattan's Wall Street district, closing financial markets for a second day.
Neighbourhoods along the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan were underwater, as were low-lying streets in Battery Park near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Centre once stood.
As the weakened but still sprawling storm system continued its trek inland, more than 1 million people in a dozen states along its path were still under orders to evacuate.
Sandy left behind a trail of damage - homes underwater, trees toppled and power lines downed - up and down the Atlantic coast.
The New York Stock Exchange says it will re-open today after two days' closure, as will the Nasdaq exchange. The last time the stock exchange shut down for two days was in 1888.
New York's subway system sustained the worst damage in its 108-year history, said Joseph Lhota, head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the subway system would likely be closed for four or five days.
Houses and businesses on the New Jersey shore sustained extensive damage from the storm's onslaught. "The devastation is unthinkable," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told reporters after seeing aerial pictures of the area.
In the storm's wake, Obama issued federal emergency decrees for New York and New Jersey, declaring that "major disasters" existed in both states.
Obama and Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney put campaigning on hold for a second day instead of launching their final push for votes ahead of the November 6 election.
Obama, who has made every effort to show himself staying on top of the storm situation, faces political danger if the federal government fails to respond well in the storm's aftermath, as was the case with predecessor George W. Bush's botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
But Obama also has a chance to look presidential in a national crisis.
One disaster-forecasting company predicted economic losses could ultimately reach $20 billion (12.4 billion pounds), only half insured.
Meanwhile, the unprecedented flooding hampered efforts to fight a massive fire that destroyed more than 50 homes in Breezy Point, a private beach community on the Rockaway barrier island in the New York City borough of Queens.
The storm weakened as it ploughed slowly west across southern Pennsylvania, its remnants situated between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with maximum winds down to 45 mph, the National Hurricane Centre said.
As residents and business owners began a massive clean-up effort and faced a long and costly recovery, US President Barack Obama yesterday said the crisis was not yet over and announced plans to go and view devastation in New Jersey today.
Obama said that he had ordered federal government officials dealing with the storm to short circuit normal government procedures to get help quickly to millions of people affected by the huge storm.
Sandy, which was especially imposing because of its wide-ranging winds, brought a record storm surge of almost 14 feet (4.2 meters) to downtown Manhattan, well above the previous record of 10 feet (3 meters) during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.
"Hitting at high tide, the strongest surge and the strongest winds all hit at the worst possible time," said Jeffrey Tongue, a meteorologist for the weather service in Brookhaven, New York.
Hurricane-force winds as high as 90 miles per hour (145 km per hour) were recorded, he said. "Hopefully it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm," Tongue said.
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