New York City's subway service is unlikely to resume for four to five days following monster storm Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg said on Tuesday.
In press a conference, the mayor said the city was hoping to resume limited bus service on Tuesday and full bus service on Wednesday. He also added that the city experienced 23 serious fires and more than 80 houses were burned.
For his part, New York governor reported that fifteen people in NY died in connection with the storm.
Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey
coastline and hurled a record-breaking 13-foot (4-meter) surge of seawater at
New York City on Monday, roaring ashore and putting the presidential campaign
on hold a week before Election Day. At least 14 deaths were blamed on the
storm.
Sandy knocked out power to at
least 5.7 million people across the U.S. East, and New York's main utility said
large sections of Manhattan had been plunged into darkness by the storm, with
250,000 customers without power as water pressed into the island from three
sides, flooding rail yards, subway tracks, tunnels and roads.
Just before its center reached
land, the storm was stripped of hurricane status, but the distinction was
purely technical, based on its shape and internal temperature. It still packed
hurricane-force wind, and forecasters were careful to say it remained every bit
as dangerous to the 50 million people in its path.
The full extent of the storm's
damage across the region was unclear, and unlikely to become known until day
break. Heavy rain and further flooding remain major threats over the next
couple of days as the storm makes its way into Pennsylvania and up into New
York State. Near midnight, the center of the storm was just outside
Philadelphia, and its winds were down to 75 mph (120 kph), just barely
hurricane strength.
The sea surged a record of nearly 13 feet (4
meters) at the foot of Manhattan, flooding the financial district and subway
tunnels.
The 14 deaths were reported in
New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Some of the
victims were killed by falling trees. Police in Toronto said a woman was killed
by a falling sign as high winds closed in on Canada's largest city.
As it made its way toward land,
it converged with a cold-weather system that turned into a fearsome superstorm,
a monstrous hybrid consisting not only of rain and high wind but of snow.
Forecasters warned of 20-foot (6-meter) waves bashing into the Chicago
lakefront and up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) of snow in West Virginia.
Storm damage was projected at $10
billion to $20 billion, meaning it could prove to be one of the costliest
natural disasters in U.S. history.
As the storm approached the
Northeast over the weekend, airlines canceled more than 12,000 flights in the
region.
In downtown Manhattan, rescue
workers floated bright orange rafts on flooded streets, while police officers
with loudspeakers told people to go home.
As the storm approached the
Northeast over the weekend, airlines canceled more than 12,000 flights in the
region.
As rain from the leading edges
began to fall over the Northeast on Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people
from Maryland to Connecticut were ordered to leave low-lying coastal areas,
including 375,000 in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York City, 50,000
in Delaware and 30,000 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Obama declared emergencies in
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, authorizing federal relief work to begin well ahead of time. He
promised the government would "respond big and respond fast" after
the storm hits.
Obama cancels presidential campaign in Ohio:
U.S. President Barack Obama will stay in Washington on Wednesday to oversee the response to Hurricane Sandy, canceling another day of campaigning roughly a week before Election Day, the White House said on Tuesday.
"The president will remain in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to monitor the response to Hurricane Sandy and ensure that all available federal resources continue to be provided to support ongoing state and local recovery efforts," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.
"As a result, the president will not participate in the campaign events that had been scheduled in Ohio tomorrow."
The president had already skipped political events on Monday and Tuesday to be in Washington for the storm and its aftermath.
AP