Opinion

The wrath of Sandy

It will be days, if not weeks, before the full scope of Sandy’s damage will be known.

But two things are undeniable:

* The monster storm’s devastation was beyond catastrophic.

* The region, for all of that, was blessed with stellar leadership when it counted.

Asked about the death toll yesterday, thought to be well into double digits, Gov. Cuomo, eerily, found it hard to commit to an exact count: “We don’t have the final number of fatalities, because we haven’t found everyone yet.”

Aside from 9/11, surely few folks — if any — have ever seen anything in this region even close to the kind of horrors Sandy inflicted on New York and New Jersey:

* Ocean, bay and river water overtopped shores — swamping neighborhoods.

* Mass transit, including the airports, shut down for days.

* Subway tubes were flooded.

* A crane toppled and hung by a thread some 70 stories in the air, flapping ominously in the storm winds.

* Scores of homes burned in fires.

* Cars floated down city streets.

* Nearly 10 million, overall, lost power.

* Even a hospital had to be evacuated.

It’s the stuff of disaster movies.

MTA boss Joe Lhota called the damage “the worst we have ever seen.”

Not surprisingly, New Yorkers rose to the occasion, reprising the same indomitable spirit so famously on display on 9/11.

It started with leadership — from Cuomo to Mayor Bloomberg to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to officials throughout the region. All possible precautions were ordered, and the region was ready.

First responders — cops, firefighters, National Guard and others — again earned the awe and respect that is their due.

Indeed, Cuomo credited these eternal heroes with saving “hundreds of lives” — and that might be a low estimate.

And it wasn’t just uniformed personnel.

Workers from ConEd, the MTA and numerous other organizations, public and private, have been struggling frantically for days, doing everything humanly possible to keep folks safe — and the city running.

Even many food establishments somehow managed to stay open.

One of the most inspiring stories — among many — was the evacuation of NYU Langone Medical Center.

The failure of the hospital’s backup generators crippled equipment for nearly 200 intensive-care patients, including 20 newborns. But staff turned on a dime and cleared the building, even carrying many of the patients down nine flights.

Today, huge short-term challenges face this city — like getting mass transit to a functional level, restoring power to as many folks as possible, caring for those without homes or other necessities . . .

Long-term infrastructure-rebuilding, too, will be of a gargantuan scale.

Is the region up to the challenge?

You bet.