New York, Oct 31 : US authorities today scrambled to restore power and clear heaps of debris in the densely-populated East Coast region after superstorm Sandy left a trail of destruction from the Caribbean to Canada, claiming 59 lives in the US alone.
The most devastating storm witnessed by the US in decades, hit Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina to Connecticut, cutting off communication and leaving millions of people shivering without power as thousands were evacuated from flooded neighbourhoods.
At least 59 people have been reported dead as a result of the storm, Fox news said. It said quoting estimates from an economic firm that up to USD 20 billion had been lost due to the calamity.
Two of the New York area's major airports, John F Kennedy and Newark Liberty, were set to reopen today together with the New York stock exchange and the Nasdaq exchange, which had been suspended since Monday in the markets' first closure since the 9/11 attacks of 2001, officials said.
Meanwhile, three US nuclear power reactors remained shut down. Amid worries that waters could overwhelm the reactors as happened in Japan's Fukushima nuclear emergency last year, authorities yesterday said there were no risks to the public.
New Jersey's power company PSEG Nuclear shut down its Salem 1 unit at Hancocks Bridge on the Delaware river. The Nine Mile Point unit 1 in Scriba, New York, and the Indian Point reactor 3 in Buchanan, New York were also closed. Sandy slammed the coastline of New Jersey with 80 mph winds pushing seawater up by an unprecedented 13-feet in New York City, and bringing the US presidential campaign to a halt a week before the November 6 polls.
Storm damage was projected at USD 10 billion to USD 20 billion, meaning it could prove to be one of the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The deaths were reported from across seven states—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia.
New York City, which saw a four-metre storm surge, expects the toll to rise, said Mayor Bloomberg. “In addition to the lives we lost, the damage we suffered across the city is clearly extensive and it will not be repaired overnight,” Bloomberg told reporters.
“This was a devastating storm, maybe the worst that we have ever experienced,” he said. In Staten Island, a large tanker ship ran aground.
