New Yorkers dug out from Hurricane Sandy’s carnage today, following the hellish reign of death and destruction brought on by the killer storm.
Gotham residents today, about 750,000 of them without any power, had to carefully navigate streets littered with uprooted trees, and avoid dangerous spots with downed power lines.
Sandy also sucker punched Long Island, leaving 900,000 customers — 90 percent of Nassau and Suffolk Counties — in the dark, according to Gov. Cuomo. Two million statewide are without power, the governor added.
“We expected an unprecedented storm impact here on New York City and that’s what we got,” Mayor Bloomberg said earlier today. “So while the worst of this storm has passed, the conditions are still dangerous.”
The mayor added: “Clearly the challenges our city faces in the coming days are enormous.”
Closed-circuit cameras captured flood waters surging out of an elevator shaft and inundating this PATH station in Hoboken, NJ. (AFP/Getty Images)
At least 250,000 Manhattan residents had no power at the height of the storm, most of them living below 39th Street.
As night fell on New York, Bloomberg and NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly promised stepped up police patrols in darkened areas of the city.
“You’re just going a very heavy police presence,” Bloomberg said tonight.
“The police cars have their lights on and officers will be out there.”
Almost 4,000 utility workers, from as far away as California, are expected to arrive in New York city and state this week to help turn on the power.
But don’t expect the lights to be on anytime soon.
“Power may be out in lots of places for two or three days and maybe even a little bit longer than that,” Bloomberg said.
Public schools in the city will be closed through at least tomorrow, Bloomberg announced.
NYC TRANSIT CRIPPLED AFTER STORM
POWER OUT FOR THOUSANDS AROUND AREA
AT LEAST 75 FLOODED HOMES BURN AS BREEZY POINT BLAZE RAGES
Many of those schools are being used as emergency evacuation centers for 6,400 displaced New Yorkers and 2,900 city staffers helping them, Bloomberg said.
Several buses got rolling early this evening in all five boroughs running on a modified Saturday schedule.
The MTA hopes to have most or all lines running by tomorrow. No bus fares will be collected tonight or tomorrow.
The restoration of subway service appears to be between three days and five days away, Bloomberg said.
Partial LIRR service is expected to be restored tomorrow, according to the MTA.
There is no timetable for restoring NJ Transit service and PATH could be out for up to 10 days, according to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
The governor tweeted: “The NJ_TRANSIT system has experienced unprecedented devastation. Service will not resume until it’s repaired, safe, & secure.”
The Holland and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels are still flooded and closed, but the Lincoln Tunnel is open.
The New York Stock Exchange, which has been closed for the past two days, will reopen tomorrow.
Last night’s storm “was the worst disaster the [MTA] has seen in the 108 years of running subways,” Bloomberg said.
“We’ve never seen damage like this before,” Cuomo said of transit system damage.
At least 22 people were killed in New York City and at least 13 more died in the suburbs from last night and this morning’s deadly storm.
“The damage is extensive, but the loss of life — while every one loss of life is tragic, given the magnitude of this storm, we probably have gotten through this better than some people might have thought,” Bloomberg said.
In one of the most horrific deaths reported so far, a Queens woman was electrocuted last night after she got too close to downed power lines on her block, horrified neighbors said.
The 23-year-old victim, a recent college graduate, stepped outside her 105-05 105th Ave home, in South Richmond Hill, at 8:30 p.m. to snap pictures, neighbors said.
The block’s power line had fallen near the car of across-the-street neighbor Mahendra Chetram, 35, and he rushed outside to move his vehicle.
“I looked out my window and I saw the girl across the street taking pictures of the live wire sparking near my car, so I ran outside to move my car,” Chetram said.
“I jumped in [the car]. She was still taking pictures and as I backed down the street, [then] I heard a loud shriek and It looks just like how it does in the movies. Her body was gyrating, smoke was coming from her and within 25 seconds she was out, No movement.”
A storm-related fire in Breezy Point, Queens, wiped out 111 homes and was brought under control this morning.
Remarkably, it appears no one died in blaze, Bloomberg said tonight.
There were 23 storm-related fires in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, City Island and the Bronx, according to City Hall.
The mayor, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and US Sen. Chuck Schumer took an aerial tour of New York’s most devastated neighborhoods.
Bloomberg, on foot, also visited burned-out grounds in Breezy Point, and ran into Congressman Bob Turner, who lost his home there.
“To describe it as looking like pictures we’ve seen of the end of World War II is not overstating it,” Bloomberg said tonight.
“The area was completely leveled — chimneys and foundations were all that was left of many of these homes.”
In Staten Island, off-duty NYPD officer Arthur Kasprzak died while trying to rescue his family from their flooding Doty Avenue home, police sources said.
Kasprzak saved his girlfriend and five family members stuck in their flooded home. He fought his way through a gut-wrenching rescue of the six people last night — only to be sucked in by a 10-foot tide.
“He was in the basement getting family out when they lost sight of him,” a police source said. “He died trying to save his family,”
In Brooklyn, Jessie Streich-Kest and her boyfriend Jacob Vogelman, both 24, were crushed by a falling tree while walking their dog, Max, on Ditmas Avenue early this morning, sources said.
The dog survived the tragedy and was taken to an emergency veterinary hospital.
Streich-Kest taught at the Brooklyn School of Social Justice and was a social activist with New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets.
“I can’t believe she is not here anymore,” said friend Matt MacLean. “Her passion for animal welfare, political activism and her new career as a high-school teacher were so amazing.”
Staten Island was particularly hard hit, with many blocks of the Great Kills, New Dorp and South Beach so damaged that first responders struggled to get to victims.
In an incredible scene, at the flooded corner of Midland Avenue and Grimsby Street, Alex Korkhov, 48, paddled to Midland Beach houses to fish out trapped women and children.
“We’re completely wiped out, we’re flooded completely,” Korkhov said, “I tried to rescue my neighbors. I already signaled to the Coast Guard where there are families trapped.”
At least Coast Guard helicopters were hovering over Staten Island today, lowering life buckets to residents trapped inside their flooded homes.
Even though the worst of Sandy has passed, Bloomberg pleaded for New Yorkers to still be careful.
“I know it’s fun to look and it’s fun to challenge nature but nature is an awful lot more powerful than we are and we just don’t need any more fatalities,” he said.
“We will get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times – by standing together shoulder to shoulder, ready to help a neighbor, comfort a stranger and get the city we love back on its feet.”
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DISASTER RELIEF INFORMATION
Disaster relief: Here’s how to report damage to homes and businesses to FEMA.
Call FEMA at 800-621-3362 (FEMA) or visit http://www.disasterassistance.gov to register for federal disaster assistance.
Before you call, be sure to have the following information ready:
* Address of affected property
* Multiple phone numbers to reach you
* Insurance information
* Social security number
Also keep photos of damage and receipts from disaster-related expenses if you have them available.
Additional reporting by Kate Sheehy, Pedro Oliveira Jr. and Sally Goldenberg