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Signs of normalcy return, but Sandy woes persist
Workers try to clear boats and debris from the New Jersey Transit's Morgan draw bridge Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, in South Amboy, N.J. / AP Photo
Updated at 6:00 p.m. ET
NEW YORK Flights resumed, but slowly. The New York Stock Exchange got back to business, but on generator power. And with the subways still down, great numbers of people walked across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan in a reverse of the exodus of 9/11.
Two days after superstorm Sandy rampaged across the Northeast, killing at least 63 people, New York struggled Wednesday to find its way. Swaths of the city were still without power, and all of it was torn from its daily rhythms.
Before-and-after views of Sandy destruction
At luxury hotels and drugstores and Starbucks shops that bubbled back to life, people clustered around outlets and electrical strips, desperate to recharge their phones. In the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, a line of people filled pails with water from a fire hydrant. Two children used jack-o'-lantern trick-or-treat buckets.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that parts of the subway would begin running again Thursday, and that three of seven tunnels under the East River had been pumped free of water, removing a major obstacle to restoring full service.
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"We are going to need some patience and some tolerance," he said.
After Sandy, New York City slowly comes back to life
On Wednesday, both were frayed. Bus service was free but delayed, and New Yorkers jammed on, crowding buses so heavily that they skipped stops and rolled past hordes of waiting passengers.
New York City buses serve 2.3 million people on an average day, and two days after the storm they were trying to handle many of the 5.5 million daily subway riders, too.
As far west as Wisconsin and south to the Carolinas, more than 6 million homes and businesses were still without power, about 4 million of them in New York and New Jersey.
On Wednesday, fire officials said a contractor working at a home to remove trees after the storm in Annapolis was killed when a tree fell on him, raising the storm's U.S. death toll to at least 63 people.
Bellevue Hospital in NYC to be evacuated
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 500 patients were being evacuated from Bellevue Hospital because of storm damage. The hospital has run on generators since the storm. About 300 patients were evacuated from another Manhattan hospital Monday after it lost generator power.
Still, there were signs that New York was flickering back to life and wasn't as isolated as it was a day earlier.
Flights resumed at Kennedy and Newark airports on what authorities described as a very limited schedule. Nothing was taking off or landing at LaGuardia, which suffered far worse damage and still had water on the runways.
The stock exchange, operating on backup generators, came back to life after its first two-day weather shutdown since the blizzard of 1888. Mayor Michael Bloomberg rang the opening bell to whoops from traders below.
"We jokingly said this morning we may be the only building south of midtown that has water, lights and food," said Duncan Niederauer, CEO of the company that runs the exchange, in hard-hit lower Manhattan.
Most Broadway shows returned for Wednesday matinees and evening shows.
N.J. towns hit by flooding after the storm, forcing hundreds to evacuate
Across the Hudson River in New Jersey, National Guardsmen in trucks delivered ready-to-eat meals and other supplies to heavily flooded Hoboken and rushed to evacuate people from the city's high-rises and brownstones. The mayor's office put out a plea for people to bring boats to City Hall for use in rescuing victims.
CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that 10,000 Army and Air National Guard are on duty in 13 states and the U.S. Transportation Command has airlifted 120 medical personnel to New York City to help in nursing homes.
Natural gas fires erupted in Brick Township, where scores of homes were wrecked by the storm. And some of the state's barrier islands, which took a direct hit from Sandy on Monday night, remained all but cut off.
Special Report: Obama tours Superstorm Sandy aftermath
President Barack Obama took a helicopter tour of the ravaged coast with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. "We're going to be here for the long haul," Mr. Obama told people at one emergency shelter.
Later, the president said: "We are here for you, and we will not forget."
Christie, a supporter of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, says he "can't thank the president enough" for his concern and compassion during the storm.
In New York, masses of people walked shoulder-to-shoulder across the Brooklyn Bridge to get into Manhattan for work, reminiscent of the escape scenes from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and the blackout of 2003.
They entered an island sharply divided between those who had power and those who did not.
In Manhattan at night, it was possible to walk downtown along an avenue and move in an instant from a mostly normal New York scene — delis open, people milling outside bars — into a pitch-black cityscape, with police flares marking intersections.
People who did have power took to social media to offer help to neighbors.
Aerial views of superstorm damage
"I have power and hot water. If anyone needs a shower or to charge some gadgets or just wants to bask in the beauty of artificial light, hit me up," Rob Hart of Staten Island posted on Facebook.
A respected New York steakhouse in the blackout zone, Old Homestead, realized its meat was going to go bad and decided to grill what was left and sell steaks on the sidewalk for $10. A center-cut sirloin usually goes for $47.
Simon Massey and his 9-year-old son, Henry, took one last walk near their powerless apartment in downtown Manhattan before decamping to a friend's place in Brooklyn where the electricity worked.
"We're jumping ship," he said. "We gorged on eggs and sausage this morning before everything goes bad. We don't want to spend another three or four days here."
They live on the 10th floor of a 32-floor building, where they were flushing the toilet with water from their filled tub and cooking on their gas stove. They found their way down the stairs with glowsticks and flashlights, and rationed iPad and phone use.
"I'm feeling scared," said Henry, who was home from third grade for a third straight day. "It just feels really, really weird. New York's not supposed to be this quiet."
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Unlike the Trayvon Martin shooting which pointed to a guy who was mentally ill and perhaps racist shooting a black teen IN AMERICA!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-reaches-out-to-republican-governors
and
Imagine being on a rooftop with your family and children waiting to be rescued. A helicopter approaches but before they drop a line they yell over a bullhorn we need your credit card information first. The family yells, "we don't have any money," and then proceed to watch as the helicopter flies away to their next CUSTOMER!
Just another reason why Romney is not fit to be President.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/opinion/a-big-storm-requires-big-government.html
Make no mistake ruling corporate class is quite ready to watch us die in the streets. Corporations might be people, but they never feel guilt.
And Ryan now pretends he has no affection for it - after giving all his staff copies of one of her books and proclaiming himself a firm believer.
Anything to fix a headline to suit the direction the winds are blowing.
Mother Nature decided to Punish Wall Street for putting Greed over Green Technology.
In what bizzaro world is a GOP governor praising a dem president and a former GOP official complaining about an emergency response being too fast?!
Mother Nature decided to Punish Wall Street for putting Greed over Green Energy.
What was he punishing them for?
Who cares about how many Green Technology companies were in the path of Sandy. For every one hit in New Jersey, 1000 more are fine elsewhere in the nation.
Incidentally, Communist China is the by-far the Most Advanced Green Techology nation in the world.
My point is the Average WE THE PEOPLE is thinking about World Wide Natural Disasters caused by Global Warming.
Case in point - Long Beach LI - the ocean met the bay - right? So how much ocean water ran down the street all the way to Park Ave? Was it a foot? or more? You reported that ALL business in LB were destroyed You mean ALL on Park Ave for a 10 block stretch? or ALL on Beach st in the West End? That is a fantastic statement. ALL destroyed or most have water damage and need repairs - or does everyone have to rebuild? Yes SHore Road and Broadway were horribly damaged as were houses on the Bay. These are homes with water views. But were homes on Park Ave, Walnut ST, Olive ST, Chester ST, Market ST- ALL destroyed by water too? or did they have water flooding the streets? Were there cars destroyed by ocean water - on Park Ave? OR are you only speaking of homes near the beach and bay. Please advise - this is important for loved ones who can not reach families because of the power out. Please move around the city and show us more. LB people who live away from home want to know. Thank you.
If Edison doesn't want to pay for swapping out all that electrical equipment that has been drenched with sea water, will the taxpayers have to pay for it all?
Maybe they can raise debt financing, but that will increase the amount of printed money used. Maybe they will have to raise government revenues?
Will it be a progressive tax increase, or will it be a regressive tax on sales, or increases in electrical power costs? Or maybe, it will require cutting social net programs so that no taxes will be increased.
What will New York, New York --do? This is one of those questions where you wonder, do they build it themselves without inreasing government?
Rich on whose terms?
Just because some neighborhoods are rich doesn't mean everyone has money. People who have no money lost everything and have no insurance or anything to repair it. You are seeing pieces of destruction that is covering the 5 boroughs and all of long island.
People in NY who have no money are usually the first to donate to areas that have had mass destruction and we do it without hesitation.
Your an inconsiderate Ass**** and YOU are a perfect example of what is wrong with people in this country.
http://philanthropy.com/article/Sharing-the-Wealth-How-the/133605/
If you actually read the fine print for each state in terms of the reasons for charitable contributions(ie Utah) and what types of charity they provide, you'll see a different story. How about you give the sources for the people to look at, rather than cherry picking the 'facts' you want to prove your point?