HAULS OF MONTEZUMA: A group of Marines helps city sanitation workers clean up the Hurrican Sandy debris from the Midland Beach section of Staten Island yesterday. (Chad Rachman/New York Post)
When will it end?
A powerful nor’easter is threatening the Sandy-ravaged region with more flooding, gusting winds and frigid temperatures — as well as lots of rain and power outages.
“There’s a feeling of foreboding and fear,” said Bruce Alco, 51, whose Rockaways home already is without power from last week’s Frankenstorm.
“No one thought the last storm was going to be as bad as this, and look what happened,” said Alco, an engineer. “Even if [the new storm] is milder, it might do more damage because of the weakened infrastructure.”
That’s just what weather forecasters are fearing today as the powerful storm chugs up the East Coast toward the city.
It will start blowing hard in New York by midday tomorrow and into tomorrow night, with gusts hitting 50 to 60 mph, said Brian Edwards, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.
“It will be windy, that’s for sure,” said Edwards, warning the gusts could lead to more power outages and downed trees in an area that has seen plenty of both.
Edwards said the nor’easter will have a storm surge of between one to two feet higher than normal high tides along the coastline of Staten Island and up along the southern coasts of Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island — and a three- to five-foot surge in western Long Island Sound.
“The worst coastal flooding could end up at high tide [tomorrow] night,” Edwards predicted. Between one to three inches of rain are expected during the storm.
And temperatures are forecast to stay low, in the mid- or low-40s — with the wind chill making it seem like a freezing 32 degrees or less, Edwards said.
“When it rain, it pours,” said Gov. Cuomo. “When it storms, you get more storms.”
“The storm that they forecast is a serious storm,” Cuomo said. “It would hit communities, some of which may not have power, some of which already have flooding, so it complicates the situation.”
The forecast was freaking out Hazel Ayala, 27, whose Rockaway Beach Boulevard home is without power and gas — and, therefore, without heat — leaving her, her boyfriend and her two kids freezing.
“I’m scared this is going to happen again,” Ayala said. “I only live three houses away from the water. I just want to leave from here.”
In other storm-related news:
* Mayor Bloomberg warned that up to 40,000 city residents could need temporary housing because of Sandy — with up to half of them now living in public housing. He named former deputy commissioner for emergency management Brad Gair as director of housing recovery operations.
* US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the Federal Emergency Management Agency “will look at” bringing trailers and “prefab housing” for displaced residents. “No option is off the table,” Napolitano said. “All of them will probably have some role in this puzzle.”
* Most schools resumed classes yesterday after a weeklong suspension due to Sandy. Students from 82 schools that remain closed were told to stay home.
* PATH trains start limited service today. City subways remain operating with reduced service.
* Con Ed said 16 percent of its customers remained without power — 40,800 in Queens, 22,800 in Brooklyn, 15,000 on Staten Island, 3,500 in Manhattan and 68,000 in Westchester. The utility is aiming to have power restored to all customers by this weekend.
* Cuomo threatened to pull the plug on Con Ed, LIPA and other utilities because of their lackluster storm response. “God never said, ‘New York shall have the utilities forever and Con Ed is the utility and there’s nothing you can do about it,’ ” he said. “If you can’t provide the services, we will provide another vendor who can.”
* Cuomo urged people not to hoard gas, which he said was leading to long lines at service stations. He is asking nearby states to send gasoline to New York to relieve the shortages, and also is considering implementing the odd-even license plate rationing scheme that New Jersey is using.
* The governor signed an order allowing displaced voters to cast their ballots for president and US senator today anywhere in the state if they use an affidavit ballot.
* Bloomberg was angrily confronted by about a dozen residents of Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn who complained about the ongoing lack of power there, security fears and other concerns. “Miss, let me tell you,” Bloomberg said to one screaming woman, “I’m convinced everybody is trying as hard as they can. You’ve got to understand, this is a storm like we’ve never had before.”
* About 75 percent of the city’s parks and playgrounds have reopened.
* The 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero reopens today.
n The NYPD said all major crimes, except burglary, dropped last week compared with the same time period in 2011. Burglaries were up by 6 percent. That was due, in part, to looting.
* Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said President Obama’s and FEMA’s response to Sandy has been as bad as the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. “The response since the time the president got all this praise and credit and press ops has been abysmal,” Giuliani said.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton, Ikimulisa Livingston, Doug Auer ,Liz Sadler and Beth DeFalco