Sandy's trail of devastation: 30 dead, millions without power -- and it's not over
By Matt Smith and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
October 30, 2012 -- Updated 2347 GMT (0747 HKT)
Building facade collapses in New York
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: "I've never seen anything like this at all," New Jersey man says
- Sandy's toll rises to 30; nearly 8 million without power
- Hundreds are trapped after a berm breaks in New Jersey
- Transit official: The New York subway system "has never faced a disaster as devastating"
(CNN) -- Rescuers plucked stranded Jersey Shore
residents from flooded neighborhoods, workers pumped water from swamped
Manhattan tunnels and stunned homeowners dug through the wreckage of
their houses Tuesday after Superstorm Sandy ripped into the Northeast.
"I've lived here for 39
years," Toms River, New Jersey, restauranteur Keith Paul told CNN. "I've
been through several hurricanes, going back to Gloria. And I've never
seen anything like this at all."
Officials said it was
impossible to measure the destruction Sandy left behind after it struck
land near Atlantic City, New Jersey, around high tide Monday night. It
killed at least 30 people in the U.S. from North Carolina to
Connecticut, plus one in Canada -- in addition to the toll of 67 it
inflicted on the Caribbean last week.
Nearly 8 million
customers shivered without power in 15 states and the District of
Columbia on Tuesday, while thousands of people waited in shelters, not
knowing whether their homes had survived. Salt water streamed down the
concrete canyons of lower Manhattan as utility workers pumped out the
tunnels that carry people and power lines around New York.
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And as if the water
wasn't enough, one Queens neighborhood lost scores of homes to an
inferno that erupted at the height of the storm, hindering efforts to
contain it, while others within a few blocks were washed away.
"There is nothing in this
one cluster of homes," Breezy Point resident T.J. Gilmartin told CNN.
"And every house along the side that's still up is damaged. ... Even the
sidewalk is ripped up."
Rescuers were being
called back at nightfall in many towns because of the hazards lurking in
the dark, swirling water that lingered across much of the region. Paul
told CNN's "The Situation Room" that roads in Toms River and the route
to its oceanfront neighbor, Seaside Heights, were impassible.
"There's poles down,
there's trees down across wires with transformers blowing up on the
street," he said. "You go out and walk around, it's dangerous, because
if you hit a puddle and it's got electricity -- there's really not much
you can do until things get cleaned up a little bit."
Atlantic City, a resort
town famed for its beaches, boardwalk and blackjack, became an extension
of the ocean as seaweed and flotsam swirled in the knee-deep water
covering downtown streets. But while the property damage there was
"pretty extensive," Mayor Lorenzo Langford said, "I'm happy to report
that the human damage, if you will, has been minimal."
No deaths had been
reported in Atlantic City. Parts of the boardwalk were washed out in the
storm, Langford said, but the full extent of the damage was unknown.
Authorities in boats and
National Guard trucks scrambled to rescue hundreds trapped in several
towns after a berm broke in Moonachie, New Jersey. Some residents waited
on rooftops for rescuers to arrive.
"Within 30 minutes,
those towns were under 4 or 5 feet of water," said Jeanne Baratta, chief
of staff for the Bergen County executive.
At one shelter in Tinton
Falls, New Jersey, residents who've lived in the area for decades were
in "utter disbelief," said Kristiana Ameida, a Red Cross spokeswoman.
"Many are calling their
friends and neighbors, trying to get any information they possibly can.
Many of them are worrying the worst, that their homes have been
destroyed or are currently sitting under water," she said. "The garage
doors are missing. Stuff has floated out to sea."
New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie described the devastation as "unthinkable." His counterpart in
New York state, Andrew Cuomo, said, "I don't think words like
'catastrophic' or 'historic' are too strong to explain the impact." New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said restoring power and mass transit were
the biggest challenges facing officials in the days ahead.
"I'm happy to say it's
the beginning of a process that we all know will take a while,"
Bloomberg said. "But this is the end of the downside, and hopefully from
here is going up."
Parts of the city could
be without electric service for four days, Consolidated Edison President
Kevin Burke told reporters. And it was unclear when flights out of New
York would resume.
John F. Kennedy
International Airport could reopen Wednesday, Cuomo told reporters. But
LaGuardia International Airport was expected to remain closed because of
extensive damage, he said.
Bloomberg said free,
albeit limited, bus service was slated to resume Tuesday evening to take
up some of the slack left behind by the crippled subway system, and the
New York Stock Exchange was scheduled to resume trading Wednesday
morning.
While the East Coast was
still grappling with the scope of the disaster, federal officials
warned that Sandy was an ongoing concern with the potential to inflict
more pain on inland states.
"The coastal impacts are
certainly less today than they were last night, but the effects are not
zero," National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb told reporters in a
conference call. "There are still some fairly strong winds out of the
south."
The storm was centered
about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh and packing 45-mph winds Tuesday
evening, bringing flood warnings to Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania and
blizzard warnings to high elevations in the Appalachian Mountains.
Fires force evacuations in Queens
High winds from Sandy knock out power
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iReporters share Hurricane Sandy images
"It's 3 feet of heavy
snow. It's like concrete," said meteorologist Reed Timmer, who was
riding out the storm in Elkins, West Virginia.
Forecasters predict the
storm's center of circulation will be north of the Great Lakes by
Wednesday. But coastal flooding in the 2- to 4-foot range could still
occur "in spots," while the potential for other floods stretched as far
west as Lake Michigan, Knabb said. Winds remain "fairly breezy" as far
north as coastal Maine, which could see new power disruptions, he said.
"I don't want anyone to think that the event is over," Knabb said.
The full scale of
Sandy's wrath has yet to be determined. But according to a government
prediction, the storm's wind damage alone could result in more than $7
billion.
One estimate Tuesday
from Kinetic Analysis Corp., which conducts weather hazard assessments,
said the storm's economic impact could be up to $25 billion.
The dead included at
least 10 in New York City, including a 28-year-old off-duty police
officer who died in his home of Staten Island, the New York Police
Department said. One of the two dead in Connecticut was a firefighter,
Gov. Dannel Malloy said.
Falling trees or limbs
killed motorists in North Carolina and New Jersey, as well as an
8-year-old boy in Pennsylvania. Canadian authorities blamed flying
debris for the death of a Toronto woman.
And before hitting
shore, Sandy's high waves swamped the tall ship HMS Bounty, a replica of
the historic British sailing vessel. One of the ship's deckhands was
killed and her captain was still missing Tuesday, but the remaining 14
people aboard were rescued.
In Washington, President
Barack Obama pledged the full support of the federal government for
recovery efforts. He signed major disaster declarations for New Jersey
and New York on Tuesday, clearing the way for federal aid to residents
and to state and local authorities.
"My instructions to the
federal agency has been, 'Do not figure out why we can't do something. I
want you to figure out how we do something. I want you to cut through
red tape. I want you to cut through bureaucracy.' There's no excuse for
inaction at this point," Obama said during a visit to the headquarters
of the American Red Cross. "I want every agency to lean forward and to
make sure that we are getting the resources where they need -- where
they're needed as quickly as possible."
The storm's timing a
week before the presidential election is tricky for Obama and Republican
challenger Mitt Romney. Both candidates sought to balance the real
threat of a killer storm against the need to squeeze out any last-minute
advantages in battleground states ahead of next Tuesday's vote.
Obama discarded campaign
events in Florida and Virginia to return to Washington and address the
storm from the White House. He was scheduled to travel to New Jersey on
Wednesday and survey storm damage, the White House said.
On Tuesday, Romney swapped campaign rallies for a relief event in Ohio.
"We have heavy hearts as
you know with all the suffering going on in a major part of our
country. A lot of people are hurting this morning," said Romney, adding
that he had the chance to speak with some of the governors from the
affected areas.
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