Super Storm Aftermath in New York

By Marcos Gonzalez

It was a super storm that made history, left several dead and a large amount of destruction, and crippled the mass transit system to its worse conditions in over 100 years.

Hurricane Sandy pounded New York City Tuesday, with around 32 people being pronounced dead by authorities during the storm’s lethal two-day attack an damages reaching over 20 billion dollars.

President Obama declared New York a disaster area as Hurricane Sandy pounded the east coast of the United States with sheets of rain and high winds, leaving several people dead and millions without power.

Mayor Bloomberg said 500 patients were evacuated from Bellevue Hospital because of storm damage and loss of power. The hospital has run on generators since the storm. About 300 patients were evacuated from another Manhattan hospital Monday after it lost generator power.

Con Ed reported 827,622 outages across the five boroughs after several power lines were taken out, with Manhattan taking the brunt of the outages with 270,000. All of Lower Manhattan was powerless after both the East and Hudson rivers flooded into the city.

“This will be one for the record books,” said utility senior vice president John Miksad.

The stock exchange, operating on backup generators, went back to work after its first two-day weather shutdown since the blizzard of 1888. Mayor Michael Bloomberg rang the opening bell to bring the traders back to work.

“We jokingly said this morning we may be the only building south of midtown that has water, lights and food,” said Duncan Niederauer, CEO of the company that runs the exchange, in almost completely powerless lower Manhattan.

The damage was hardly limited to the city. The death toll climbed above 45 in nine states, with a staggering 8 million left without power.

Image Courtesy: AP Images