NEW YORK (AP) — Millions of people from Maine to the Carolinas
awoke Tuesday without power, and an eerily quiet New York City was all but closed off by car,
train and air as superstorm Sandy steamed inland, still delivering punishing
wind and rain. The U.S. death toll climbed to 33, many of the victims killed by
falling trees.
The full extent of the damage in New
Jersey, where the storm roared ashore Monday night with hurricane force, was
unclear. Police and fire officials, some with their own departments flooded,
fanned out to rescue hundreds.
"We are in the midst of urban
search and rescue. Our teams are moving as fast as they can," Gov. Chris
Christie said. "The devastation on the Jersey Shore is some of the worst
we've ever seen. The cost of the storm is incalculable at this point."
At least 7.4 million people across the East were without electricity.
Airlines canceled more than 12,000 flights.
Lower Manhattan, which includes Wall Street, was among
the hardest-hit areas after the storm sent a nearly 14-foot surge of seawater,
a record, coursing over its seawalls and highways and into low-lying streets.
Water cascaded into the gaping, unfinished construction pit at the World
Trade Center, and the New York Stock Exchange was closed for a second day, the
first time that has happened because of weather in more than a century.
A huge fire destroyed as many as 100
houses in a flooded beachfront neighborhood in Queens on Tuesday, forcing
firefighters to undertake daring rescues. Three people were injured.
A downtown hospital, New York
University's Tisch, evacuated 200 patients after its backup generator failed.
About 20 babies from the neonatal intensive care unit were carried down
staircases and on battery-powered respirators.
And a construction crane that collapsed
in the high winds on Monday still dangled precariously 74 floors above the
streets of midtown Manhattan.
And on Staten Island, a tanker ship wound up beached on the shore.
With water standing in two major
commuter tunnels and seven subway tunnels under the East River, and Mayor
Michael Bloomberg said it was unclear when the nation's largest transit system
would be rolling again. It shut down Sunday night ahead of the storm.
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