Obama declares major disaster
Looking at the smouldering remnants, twisted steel frames and corrugated iron sheets, it’s perhaps difficult to tell. But before the United States’ biggestever storm wrought its carnage, the now desolate and burning wasteland of Breezy Point was a thriving seaside community in New York City.
This is a neighbourhood of Queens, where, in the early hours of Tuesday, as many as 100 homes were destroyed in a fire triggered by superstorm Sandy.
The image, almost postapocalyptic in its bleakness, captured the ferocity unleashed by a storm that has left much of the eastern seaboard in chaos. Meanwhile, the storm continued northward, threatening large parts of southern and eastern Ontario as well as southern Quebec.
“We were spared,” said one Queens resident, Tom de Maria, as he passed by the remains in Breezy Point.
“But all these people have lost their homes. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen anything as bad as this,” de Maria said.
Tuesday, the U.S. death toll climbed to at least 50, with many of the victims killed as a result of falling trees and flying debris. One Toronto woman also died Monday and 69 others were killed in the Caribbean last week before Sandy made her way north.
Some of the best-known streets in the world — Fifth Avenue and Broadway — were silent and empty Tuesday; more than eight million residents across the U.S. eastern seaboard were without power; and subway tunnels were flooded.
U.S. President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in New York and Long Island, making federal funding available to residents of the area. He suspended campaigning for a third day Wednesday, and planned to join New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in viewing the damage in New Jersey.
Obama, speaking during a stop Tuesday at Red Cross headquarters, called the storm “heartbreaking for the nation.”
The president offered his thoughts and prayers to those affected and told them “America is with you.” He said he also told government officials coordinating the response that there was “no excuse for inaction.”
And he said he told governors in affected areas that if they get no for an answer, “they can call me personally at the White House.”
Streets in the city usually teeming with workers and tourists were instead littered with fallen trees, scattered debris and cars floating in water. New York University’s Tisch Hospital was forced to evacuate 200 patients after its backup generator failed.
Swaths of the southern tip of Manhattan and the edges of Brooklyn suffered severe damage following a four-metre storm surge that overwhelmed low-lying areas.
Sandy caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of the city’s subway system. The United States’ biggest transport network may not open again for another four or five days, according to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“This was a devastating storm, maybe the worst that we have ever experienced,” Bloomberg said.
The water inundated tunnels, sub-
“... maybe the worst that we have ever experienced” MICHAEL BLOOMBERG
way stations and the electrical system that powers Wall Street and sent hospital patients and tourists scrambling for safety. Skyscrapers swayed and creaked in winds that partially toppled a crane 74 storeys above Midtown. A large tanker ship ran aground on the city’s Staten Island.
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 since the Blizzard of 1888.
In New Jersey, where the superstorm came ashore, Sandy cut off barrier islands, swept houses from their foundations and washed amusement pier rides into the ocean. It also wrecked several boardwalks up and down the coast, tearing away a section of Atlantic City’s world-famous promenade.
A hoarse-voiced New Jersey governor gave bleak news at a news conference: Seaside rail lines washed away. No safe place on the state’s barrier islands for him to land. Parts of the coast still under water.
“It is beyond anything I thought I’d ever see,” Christie said. “It is a devastating sight right now.”
What damage could be seen on the coastline Tuesday was, in some locations, staggering — “unthinkable,” he said.
Sandy crossed over Pennsylvania, pushing westward with winds of 72 km/h, before heading into New York state. It brought blizzard conditions to West Virginia and neighbouring Appalachian states.
Sandy will end up causing about $20 billion in property damage and $10 billion to $30 billion more in lost business, making it one of the costliest natural disasters on record in the U.S., according to a forecasting firm.
Republican challenger for the presidency, Mitt Romney resumed his campaign, but used a rally in Ohio to collect donations of canned goods and other supplies destined to be shipped to the Eastern Seaboard.
Sandy’s most devastating mark was found across the water from the famed midways of Coney Island — themselves battered by high winds and massive storm surge— on Breezy Point. Firemen told how the storm’s unrelenting 130 km/h winds caused one house fire to spread along entire streets, obliterating dozens of family homes. “The whole neighbourhood’s gone,” said Arthur Holstrom as he surveyed the scene.