Obama declares 'major disaster' in New York as 18 people die in Superstorm Sandy and swathes of the city wake up under water

Afrik Update

News

By Dailymail

    

   

• Storm damage projected at £12bn // Sandy kills at least 18 people in US and Canada - including ten deaths in New York
• President Barack Obama has declared a 'major disaster' in New York and Long Island
• At least 7.4m properties across US East have lost power // New York City could be without power for a week
• NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg: 'Tragically we expect that number to go up' referring to New York death toll
• Mass transit system, schools, stock exchange and Broadway shut, as water overflows NYC's historic waterfront
• Record 13ft storm surge threatening lower Manhattan and howling winds left crane hanging from high-rise building
• Over 10,000 flights across the Northeast and the globe grounded due to Superstorm Sandy
• NYU Hospital loses backup power and evacuates patients // Nuclear power plant on alert
• More than 190 firefighters battled blaze destroying more than 80 homes in Breezy Point
• Stock trading will be closed in the US again for a second day running -  last time it was closed for two days was 1888

President Obama has declared a 'major disaster' in New York and Long Island as swathes of the city woke up under water after a night of being battered by Superstorm Sandy.
This morning millions of people on the East Coast are facing flooded homes, fallen trees and widespread power outages caused by the giant storm, which swamped New York City's subway system and submerged streets in Manhattan's financial district.
Sandy, one of the biggest storms to ever descend on the country, hit the mainland at 6.30pm local time yesterday having laid waste to large parts of the coast during the day.
The storm that made landfall in New Jersey yesterday evening with 80 mph sustained winds killed at least 18 people in seven states, cut power to more than 7.4 million homes and businesses from the Carolinas to Ohio, caused scares at two nuclear power plants and stopped the presidential campaign cold.
New York was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart in Lower Manhattan shuttered for a second day and seawater cascading into the still-gaping construction pit at the World Trade Center.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the death toll in the city from the huge storm is up to 10.

He also says it could be three days or more before power is restored to hundreds of thousands of people now in the dark.

He is giving no estimate on when public transit would be running, though he expects some buses be running later today.

He said there have nor been any storm-related fatalities in NYC hospitals.
  
Among the dead in New York were two children killed instantly by a falling tree in Westchester County, a woman electrocuted to death by falling wires in Manhattan and a 29-year-old man killed in a car crash in Queens. A 30-year-old man was also killed when a tree fell on his house in Flushing, Queens.
  
The storm caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of New York's extensive subway system, according to Joseph Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
  
'This will be one for the record books,' said John Miksad, senior vice president for electric operations at Consolidated Edison, which had more than 670,000 customers without power in and around New York City. 

An unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater - 3 feet above the previous record - gushed into Gotham, inundating tunnels, subway stations and the electrical system that powers Wall Street, and sent hospital patients and tourists scrambling for safety.