A new report from city officials now puts the total number of people who perished as a result of Hurricane
Sandy in New York to 22.
One was an off-duty police officer who drowned in his basement.
As the city continues to try and recover from the massive storm that hit the East Coast from Maryland to New Jersey and then New York, the realities of Sandy’s destructive path are starting to sink in.
No subway service. When will it start again? No one is saying because they don’t know. MTA officials have said that it will take time to pump water out of several tunnels, and then check if all the equipment is working properly.
The PATH train, which takes New Yorkers from Hoboken and Jersey City to Manhattan every day, down. When will it start again? Estimates range from five to seven days. That means hundreds of people unable to come across except by car or ferry. Those without cars are stuck.
And still hundreds of thousands of people are without electricity, heat, hot water and even cell phone service. Cell phone connections refused to work yesterday, with a message from Verizon that if you would like to reach your party, get your credit card ready to pay–extra.
It was also impossible to reach many people on their land lines, simply because Verizon has eliminated the constant trunk lines associated with land lines, and linked them to Verizon Fios boxes–thus after 8 hours –if then, your party is no longer reachable. Sprint callers had better luck, while AT&T towers appeared to be down, even for IPad connections.
People to planned to reach one another after the storm, found themselves out of luck, and wondering if they should go to visit relatives –on foot or by car. But with many of the roads closed, and bridges closed, that also was almost impossible.
Meanwhile, rescue crews for the many utility poles down in the surrounding boroughs and in New Jersey were being requested from as far away as Colorado and Texas. Areas of upstate New York, Long Island, Queens, Bergen County, southern New Jersey, and Connecticut remained without power.
In Lower Manhattan, the power outage could go on for four days. In parts of New Jersey the estimate was seven to 10 days. A large explosion at the 14th Street Con Ed station was captured on YouTube. It was estimated that 25 percent of Manhattan has no electricity.
Airports in the area, JFK International and Newark International Airport area poised to open today, while LaGuardia continues to be closed.
Amtrak’s Acela service between Washington, DC and New York has also been canceled.
Happy Halloween.
