Breaking News

New York Struggles To Get Back on Feet

Amid Destruction, Millions Seek Return to Business

By Reuters

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Despite much of the city’s financial district being damaged by flooding, officials planned to reopen financial markets on Wednesday as well. How much activity could take place remained to be seen, however, as many workers may be unlikely to get to work without subways and commuter railroads from the suburbs.

Christie took a helicopter tour of the Jersey shore on Tuesday and saw boats adrift, boardwalks washed away, roads blocked by massive sand drifts and other destruction. He stopped in the badly damaged resort towns of Belmar and Avalon.

“I was just here walking this place this summer, and the fact that most of it is gone is just incredible,” he said at one stop.

Christie said it could be seven to 10 days before power is restored statewide. He also said residents could not yet return to homes on the shore’s battered barrier islands.

WAITING FOR RESCUE

Obama faces political danger if the government fails to respond well, as was the case with his predecessor George W. Bush’s botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Thousands of residents of Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, were stranded in their homes due to flooding, the mayor said.

“We have, probably, about 20,000 people that still remain in their homes, and we’re trying to put together an evacuation plan, get the equipment here,” Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer told MSNBC television.

The remains of Hurricane Sandy slowed to 8 mph (13 kph) over Pennsylvania, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (64 kph) and was expected to continue north toward western New York and Canada, the National Weather Service said.

The slowed pace meant it was dumping a lot of snow on the Appalachian Mountains, with nearly 30 inches recorded in Red House, Maryland.

Blizzard warnings and coastal flood warnings for the shores of the Great Lakes were in effect. The western extreme of Sandy’s wind field generated gusts of up to 60 mph (96 kph) on the southern end of Lake Michigan and up to 35 mph (56 kph) in Chicago, the weather service said.