Devastated Northeast crawls back after monster storm

(Reuters) – THE U.S. Northeast began an arduous slog back to normal on Wednesday after historic storm Sandy crippled transportation, knocked out power for millions and killed at least 64 people with a massive storm surge that caused epic flooding.

altFinancial markets reopened with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange after the first weather-related two-day closure since 1888, and packed buses took commuters to work with the city’s subway system halted after seawater flooded its tunnels.
The New York area’s John F. Kennedy and Newark airports reopened with limited service after thousands of flights were canceled, leaving travelers stuck for days. LaGuardia Airport, a third major airport serving the nation’s busiest airspace, was flooded and remained closed.
Limited New York subway service was due to return on Thursday, four days after shutting down ahead of the storm, and some commuter rail service was due to come back on line later on Wednesday.
The progress was in contrast to images of devastation along the New Jersey Shore, where flooding swallowed whole neighborhoods, and in New York City’s Breezy Point, where 111 homes were destroyed by fire.
“It looks like the pictures of London or even Dresden after World War Two,” New York Senator Charles Schumer said in describing Breezy Point.
“Last night I had to drive into lower Manhattan. It’s eerie to see all the lights out. No street lights, no traffic lights and no glows in any of the apartment buildings,” Schumer said, calling for national unity similar to what followed the attacks of September 11, 2001.
It will take days or weeks to recover from the massive power and mass transit outages. More than 6 million customers are without electricity in the region. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the storm may be the most expensive in U.S. history.
More than half of all the gas stations in New Jersey and Long Island were shut on Wednesday due to power outages and depleted fuel supplies, frustrating attempts to restore normal life, industry officials said.
The storm caused more havoc as it moved north toward Canada. Flood warnings were in effect in the Great Lakes region and heavy snow has been falling in the Appalachian mountains.
With six days to go before the November 6 elections, President Barack Obama will visit storm-ravaged areas of the New Jersey shore, where Sandy crashed ashore on Monday as the largest storm to hit the United States in generations.
Obama will be accompanied by Republican Governor Chris Christie, a vocal backer of presidential challenger Mitt Romney. Nevertheless, Christie has praised Democrat Obama and the federal response to the storm.
The growing U.S. death toll from the storm reached at least 64, with 30 people killed in New York state, including 22 in New York City, nine in Maryland, and six each in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Five other states reported fatalities.
Sandy killed 69 people in the Caribbean last week as a hurricane before it slammed into the U.S. East Coast with winds of about 80 miles per hour (130 km per hour) and pushed inland.
Remnants of the storm churned slowly over Pennsylvania on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. Winter storm warnings were in effect from southwestern Pennsylvania to eastern Tennessee.

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