A checkpoint near the Brooklyn Bridge. (MYFoxNY)
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Commuter chaos broke out in Brooklyn and near the George Washington Bridge this morning, as subways roared back into Manhattan for the first time since Hurricane Sandy.
Limited subway and train service allowed Bronx, Queens, Long Island and Westchester County workers to enter Manhattan, but their jam-packed journey was nothing compared to the hours-long struggles commuters faced at other entry points.
With no power or subway service in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn residents had to rely on buses to get into the city. Thousands of frustrated Brooklynites circled the brand-new Barclays Center and waited hours to board Manhattan-bound busses.
With such huge crowds, some bus operators picked up passengers at the back of lines, just to get some people rolling — to the anger of commuters in the front of line.
There was also a major traffic snafu at the George Washington, where commuters had been promised an exemption from emergency HOV requirements.
Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo ordered almost all Manhattan bridges and tunnels restricted to rush-hour drivers with at least three passengers.
There was supposed to be an exemption at the George Washington Bridge, because many of those motorists use that span to head north toward Connecticut, and away from Manhattan.
But cops set up an HOV check point where GWB drivers connected to the West Side Highway.
It took a call from Gov. Cuomo to get that wrongly placed checkpoint removed, according to WCBS.
A City Hall source told The Post that cops mistakenly blocked cars with fewer that three passengers on the bridge because of an apparent miscommunication.
“That detail [HOV checkpoint] is no longer there,” the source said. “Obviously there was some confusion.”
Hurricane Sandy brutalized New York City and its surrounding suburbs Monday night and Tuesday morning, killing at least 34 Big Apple residents, officials said this morning.
The storm was particularly deadly in Staten Island, where at least 15 people were killed by Sandy, officials said. There were also nine storm-related deaths in Queens, seven fatalities in Brooklyn and three killed in Manhattan.
Despite all these problems, storm-battered New Yorkers said they were just happy that some subways were rolling again today.
“It’s [subway trains] the lifeline of the city,” said commuter Ronnie Abraham, waiting at Penn Station for a Harlem-bound train. “It can’t get much better than this.”
The HOV requirements on Manhattan-bound bridges and tunnels went into effect at 6 a.m. and will go to midnight.
The same requirements will be enforced from 6 a.m to midnight tomorrow.
City and state authorities said they had no choice but to limit the number of cars entering Manhattan.
“The streets just cannot handle the number of cars,” said Mayor Bloomberg.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission announced today that vehicles licensed to the agency are now exempt from HOV restrictions on bridges.
Taxis, liveries and black cars were originally exempt only between 4 p.m. and midnight.
Flights took off and landed today at LaGuardia Airport, the last of the three major New York-area airports to reopen since the storm, which killed more than 70 people across the Northeast and left millions without power.
Gov. Cuomo declared a “transportation emergency’’ yesterday — which means all operating subways, commuter lines and buses are free to ride today and tomorrow.
MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota says 14 of the city’s 23 subway lines are to be operating today with service restoration to continue as the days go on.
F and N trains will operate from Queens to Manhattan, just two of the 14 lines that will be at least partially back.
Three of the tunnels that run under the East River between Brooklyn and lower Manhattan have been cleared of debris and water, but electricity has not been restored and it’s not known when they’ll be back in use.
“We’re going switch by switch, signal by signal, power station by power station,” said MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota.
The LIRR and Metro-North are also slowly rolling back.
There was still no power in much of Manhattan below 39th Street, so traffic lights did not work.
The MTA stopped service below 23rd Street after sundown last night, because it was too dangerous to drive without operating traffic lights.
The Brooklyn Battery, Queens Midtown and Holland tunnels remain closed.
jennifer.fermino@nypost.com