Storm's human toll enormous
Tragic stories behind the numbers
A father and son drowned in their basement. A young girl died when the
storm surge hit her house. Here are the stories of Sandy's victims. FULL STORY
Sandy survivors push toward normalcy and search for the missing
updated 1:33 PM EDT, Thu November 1, 2012
A look at some of Sandy's victims
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Superstorm Sandy deaths reach 150 overall, including at least 81 in the U.S.
- A half-million-plus New York City customers are still without power
- The New York City Marathon is still scheduled for Sunday
- With hobbled transit, commuters head to work
Have you been affected by Superstorm Sandy? If so, share your images and footage with CNN iReport, but please stay safe. For minute-by-minute updates, go to our live blog on This Just In.
(CNN) -- Survivors of Superstorm Sandy struggled
Thursday to balance their need for normalcy with the emotionally
devastating weight of tragedy.
Many woke up and joined
countless others who went to work, beset by thoughts of the dead and
missing two days after Sandy slammed into the Northeastern U.S.
It's unknown exactly how
many people are unaccounted for. There are numerous reports in New York,
New Jersey and elsewhere of ongoing search efforts.
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The missing include two
boys ripped from their mother's arms by fierce waves, and a man believed
to have been carried away by floodwater.
Other survivors are
mourning the dead, including a father and son who drowned in the
basement of their home; a young girl who was killed when the storm surge
swallowed her house; and a woman who was electrocuted when she stepped
on a downed power line.
At least 81 people in the
United States and two in Canada have died as a result of Sandy, raising
the storm's overall death toll to 150. It earlier claimed 67 lives in
the Caribbean.
But the struggle toward
normalcy ramped up Thursday, as authorities in nine states tallied
worked to restore basic services like public transit and electricity.
The two missing boys are
ages 2 and 4. They were separated from their mother when the SUV they
were riding in was overwhelmed by the storm surge that struck New York's
Staten Island, authorities told CNN affiliate NY1.
The mother and two boys escaped the SUV that was quickly filling with water only to be overtaken by the storm surge.
"She had them in her arms, and a wave came and swept them out of her arms," a family member told the New York Daily News.
Sandy claimed at least 37 lives in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Thursday.
The body of 13-year-old
Andrea Dresch was pulled from the debris of a house in New York's Staten
Island that was swallowed by a tidal surge when Sandy swept ashore,
authorities told CNN affiliate WCBS on Wednesday. Her father was among those reported missing, SILive.com reported.
When it comes to
electricity, Manhattan has become an island of haves and have-nots.
About 530,000 customers were without power citywide, Bloomberg said
Thursday, many of them south of Midtown's 34th Street. Parts of Queens
and Staten Island also had no electricity Thursday. "Restoring power
will take a lot of time," he said.
New York's vast transit
network remains hobbled. The Metropolitan Transit Authority said 14 of
23 subway lines were running and 4,000 buses were taking up the slack --
packed with commuters. Many who made their way into Manhattan from the
outer boroughs Thursday took four to five hours to get to work. River
and harbor ferries were close to resuming service, including the famous
Staten Island Ferry, which Bloomberg said could be back in business in
the next few days.
Floodwater filled some
subway and vehicle tunnels, and getting water out of the tunnels is "one
of the main orders of business right now," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
Another sign of the
struggle toward normalcy: the New York City Marathon. Organizers pushed
to hold the iconic footrace as scheduled this Sunday.
Event organizer Mary
Wittenberg said the race shouldn't divert any resources from the
recovery. But, she said, keeping the marathon on schedule signals that
the city aims to rebound and be "as vital and vibrant as ever."
Sandy came ashore late
Monday in southern New Jersey, wiping out houses, pushing sand four
blocks inland, in places, and leaving thousands stranded.
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Search-and-rescue crews
were going door-to-door in some neighborhoods looking for people,
particularly the elderly, stranded by the power outages, the debris and
remaining floodwater.
Sandy killed at least
six people in New Jersey, said Gov. Chris Christie, who had warned
people in low-lying areas to evacuate. "We're lucky that more people
didn't die as a result of folks ignoring those warnings," he told
reporters.
A number of deaths were caused by the storm surge, downed electrical lines and cold weather.
Lauren Abraham, 23, was
killed Monday outside her Jamaica, Queens, home in New York when she
stepped on a downed electrical line in a puddle, police said.
The Lehigh County,
Pennsylvania, coroner attributed the death of 86-year-old Theresa
Schlitzer to hypothermia after she was found unconscious in her yard, CNN affiliate WHTM in Harrisburg reported.
Schlitzer died Tuesday
after spending nearly 12 hours outside in the storm, the coroner told
WHTM. Details about why Schlitzer was outside and how she became
incapacitated were not immediately available.
Boats were washed onto
front yards in the Staten Island neighborhood of Great Kills. Borough
President James Molinaro said the water has mostly receded, but the
damage is severe. Several people, including the two young boys, are
missing.
In the same New York
City borough, John Filipowicz, 51, and his 20-year-old son John were
found dead after being buried under debris in the basement of their home
after it was swamped by the storm surge, authorities told WCBS.
Commuters, homeowners and businesses, meanwhile, struggled with the loss of power and waterlogged or burned homes.
Many are still in need
of basic supplies. President Barack Obama visited a shelter Wednesday in
the hard-hit town of Brigantine, New Jersey, where he said he met a
woman with an 8-month-old who had run out of diapers and formula.
Rooftop rescues in Staten Island
New Jersey's stranded rescued
Sandy floods NYC, New Jersey subways
Broken power, gas lines in Long Branch
"Those are the kinds of basic supplies and help that we can provide," he said.
Obama promised that the federal government "will not quit" until communities are cleaned up.
"We are not going to
tolerate red tape, we are not going to tolerate bureaucracy," Obama
said. "And I've instituted a 15-minute rule, essentially, on my team.
You return everybody's phone calls in 15 minutes, whether it's the
mayor's, the governor's, county officials'.
"If they need something, we figure out a way to say yes."
Christie asked for
patience as crews worked to turn the power back on for more than 2
million people still in the dark. He toured Brigantine on Wednesday with
Obama, who said utilities from across the country have pledged to send
crews to New Jersey as soon as possible.
By early Thursday, the
remnants of Superstorm Sandy headed north through Canada, with the last
of its effects beginning to wind down along the Appalachian Mountains, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm brought 2 to 3
feet of snow to some areas in West Virginia and Maryland, leaving
thousands without power. Several more inches of snow are possible in
some areas before the storm ends this week, the weather service said.
A little less than 4.9
million customers across the eastern United States were still in the
dark early Thursday, down from the nearly 8 million who lost power
shortly after the storm hit.
CNN's Joe Sterling and Melissa Grey contributed to this report.
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