Sandy’s devastating blow Death toll climbs to at least 33, including 17 dead in N.Y.
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Date: 10/30/2012 10:21:50 AM
Sender: Washington Post
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By Dan Eggen, Frederick Kunkle and William Branigin, Updated: Tuesday, October 30, 12:47 PM
New York and New Jersey awoke Tuesday to devastating flooding, power outages and scattered fires left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which cast broad swaths of the Northeast into darkness as it barreled ashore overnight and left at least 33 people dead from Connecticut to North Carolina.
The powerful storm’s torrential rains and howling winds transformed the streets of Atlantic City into rushing rivers and inundated parts of Lower Manhattan. Swirling water formed white-capped cascades in the Ground Zero construction zone and swamped New York’s financial district.
A 13-foot surge of seawater flooded streets, tunnels, parking garages and parts of the electrical system that powers Lower Manhattan, leaving a portion of the city’s storied skyline dark. Seven tunnels and several bridges leading to Manhattan were closed, the city’s crucial subway system was shut down, and a fire destroyed 80 to 100 houses in the flooded Rockaway peninsula of Queens, forcing the rescue of about 25 people from an upstairs apartment. Firefighters were still battling the blazes Tuesday morning.
The storm claimed at least 10 lives in New York City, “and tragically we expect that number to go up,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) told a late-morning news conference.
Overall, the death toll climbed to 33, including 17 victims in New York state, the Associated Press reported. Storm-related fatalities were also reported in at least seven other states. Many of the victims were killed by falling trees, AP said.
“The damage we suffered across the city is clearly extensive, and it will not be repaired overnight,” Bloomberg said. He said all New York area airports are still shut down Tuesday and that public transportation in the city “remains closed until further notice.” About 750,000 New Yorkers are without power, the mayor said.
“The level of devastation at the Jersey Shore is unthinkable,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said in a news conference earlier Tuesday morning. He said he was about to take a helicopter tour to assess the damage but “there is no place for me to land on the barrier islands.” He said 2.4 million New Jersey households are without power — twice the number that lost electricity during Hurricane Irene — and he estimated that full restoration would take longer than the eight days it took after that storm last year.
“It is beyond anything I thought I’d ever see,” Christie said of the damage to his state. “Terrible.... No question in my mind, the devastation that happened to New Jersey is beyond what happened to anyone else” from Sandy.
One of the most gripping dramas of the storm came at New York University’s Tisch Hospital, which evacuated more than 200 patients to other facilities — including 20 infants from neonatal intensive care — after a backup generator failed. Nurses frantically kept patients alive with respirators operating on battery power as they gingerly carried them down darkened stairwells and into the howling gale outside.
Transit authorities said the storm was the most destructive in the 108-year history of the New York subway system, and they offered no timeline for restoration of service early Tuesday. “We are assessing the extent of the damage and beginning the process of recovery,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph J. Lhota said in a statement.
Later, in response to a question at this news conference, Bloomberg said it could take four or five days for the subway system to resume normal operations.
Authorities in New Jersey said rising water overwhelmed a natural berm in Bergen County, prompting frantic efforts to rescue hundreds of stranded residents of the towns of Moonachie, Little Ferrie and Carlstadt.
Christie said residents in three trailer parks in Moonachie had to await rescue on roofs.
“We’ve rescued hundreds of folks out of there,” Christie said on CNN. “We’ll have to rescue hundreds more throughout the day.”
Christie also reiterated criticism of the mayor of Atlantic City for not heeding an evacuation order.
In all, an estimated 7.5 million people lost power, and more than 1 million in a dozen states were ordered to evacuate. The storm shut or slowed a half dozen nuclear power plants, news agencies reported, and the nation’s oldest facility, the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey, was placed on “alert” status after floodwaters jeopardized a key cooling system, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
After claiming 69 lives in the Caribbean, Hurricane Sandy was officially reclassified as a nontropical storm because of its unusual dynamics shortly before it came ashore at 8 p.m. Monday in Atlantic City. But it still packed sustained hurricane-force winds of 80 mph or more, and it produced dangerous flood tides as high as 13 feet , the National Hurricane Center said.
By about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sandy was classified a post-tropical cyclone. Meteorologists said Sandy lost some characteristics of a tropical storm because of its collision with arctic air. But that collision also created an unusually large and dangerous storm system spanning nearly 1,000 miles and dumping as much as 2 feet of snow in mountainous areas.
President Obama signed federal emergency declarations for 10 states and the District of Columbia, permitting state officials to begin making requests for federal assistance, including manpower and equipment.
The president canceled campaign plans for Monday and Tuesday so he could remain at the White House and oversee the federal response to the storm. Obama later canceled campaign events scheduled for Wednesday in Ohio, the White House announced.
GOP challenger Mitt Romney also shelved most of his campaign plans, announcing a “storm relief” event to be held later Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio.
In his remarks on CNN, Christie said he was confident that power would be restored in time for next Tuesday’s election but played down the issue’s importance.
“I spoke to the president three times yesterday,” Christie said. “He’s been incredibly supportive and helpful to our state and not once did he bring up the election.... If he’s not bringing it up, I’m certainly not going to bring it up.”
U.S. stock markets remained closed for a second day Tuesday. It was the first time that the New York Stock Exchange was closed for two straight days because of weather since a major blizzard struck the city in 1888.
Federal government offices also remained closed for most employees, most schools, colleges and universities shut their doors for another day and Amtrak canceled Northeast service.
The Hamptons, the ocean-front vacation spot of hedge fund moguls, entertainers and old money, lost power at about 4:30 p.m. on Monday when Sandy’s leading edge grazed Long Island. Many of the communities remained cut off early Tuesday morning by downed oak trees that lay across the privet-lined two-lane roads.
In the bay front village of Sag Harbor the combination of flooding, snapped trees and power lines meant residents would be without power for seven to ten days, mayor Brian Gilbride said via radio early Tuesday morning.
Sandy also forced the evacuation of coastal communities in Massachusetts while authorities in Maine shut down the Port of Portland.
Earlier Monday off the North Carolina coast, the tall ship HMS Bounty sank; 14 crew members were rescued by the Coast Guard, but one crew member drowned and the captain was missing.
“We are certain that this is going to be a slow-moving process through a wide swath of the country, and millions of people are going to be affected,” Obama told reporters at the White House on Monday before Sandy came ashore. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has pre-positioned supplies and is working closely with state and local officials.
The storm touched an estimated 60 million people in its path from North Carolina to New England and is expected to wreak billions of dollars in damage. “Sandy is unfolding as the Northeast’s Katrina in terms of impact,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Steve Wistar, referring to the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005.
Laura Vozzella, Jeremy Borden, Lynh Bui, Ann E. Marimow, Lori Aratani, Emma Brown, Tim Craig, Aaron C. Davis, Hamil R. Harris, Sally Jenkins, Ed O’Keefe, Del Quentin Wilber, Debbi Wilgoren and the Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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