New York - US
President Barack Obama toured New Jersey's devastated coastline on Wednesday,
vowing to stay with flood victims "for the long haul", as the US toll
from superstorm Sandy passed 60.
New York slowly
got back on its feet. The stock exchanges and John F Kennedy and Newark Liberty
airports reopened. But more than six million homes and businesses, the majority
of them in New York state and neighbouring New Jersey, remained without power.
The true extent of
one of the largest and most destructive storms ever to strike the United States
became clearer - entire coastal communities in Maryland, Delaware and New
Jersey are submerged or cut off by floodwaters.
US media reports
said 63 Americans had been confirmed dead across 15 storm-ravaged states, bringing
Sandy's overall toll to 135 including Canada and the Caribbean, where Haiti and
Cuba were hit particularly hard.
Election
Just six days
before America goes to the polls, with his re-election chances hanging in the
balance, Obama surveyed the damage in New Jersey, where a massive relief
operation had swung into gear with tens of thousands of homes under water.
Taking a third day
off the campaign trail to manage the response to the disaster despite Tuesday's
looming election, Obama, accompanied by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie,
offered a show of strength and support to victims.
"You guys are
in my thoughts and prayers. We are going to be here for the long haul," he
told a group of evacuees at a makeshift shelter after listening to stories of
loss and survival.
Obama and Christie
clambered aboard the president's Marine One helicopter to fly over New Jersey's
Atlantic coast - over houses tipped off their foundations, streets inundated
with sand, and still flooded neighbourhoods.
In the community of
Seaside Heights, Obama saw the twisted iron of an amusement park which took a
heavy hit from the storm, and a nearby pier that was ripped apart.
Although the main
focus was on New Jersey and New York, particularly lower Manhattan and Long
Island, Obama said he was also concerned about Connecticut and West Virginia,
where heavy snows had made certain areas inaccessible.
"We are here
for you. And we will not forget. We will follow up to make sure that you get
all the help that you need until you've rebuilt," he said, adding:
"we will not quit until this is done".
Transport
While many towns
and cities along the US East Coast remained paralysed following Monday's
onslaught by superstorm Sandy, buses were back on New York streets and state
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that limited subway services would resume on
Thursday.
New York's
LaGuardia airport was also expected to reopen on Thursday. At last count, 19
500 flights had been cancelled because of Sandy, tracking service
flightaware.com said.
Limited commuter
rail service to New York suburbs resumed on Wednesday, while Mayor Michael
Bloomberg announced temporary car pooling rules to reduce the gridlock choking
Manhattan.
Institutions
returning to service also included the UN Security Council, which suffered
flooding from the East River.
Despite these
improvements, large sections of New York, including many skyscrapers in lower
Manhattan, remained without electricity, and schools throughout the city were
to remain shuttered for the rest of the week.
Bellevue Hospital,
the oldest in the country, decided to evacuate its remaining 500 patients on
Wednesday after flooding inundated the basement and knocked out electricity.
In nearby Hoboken,
on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, people in flooded homes were still
waiting for rescue, while in Jersey City, a night curfew was declared in the
wake of looting.
Romney
The presidential
election campaign, which went into a hiatus during the storm, was likewise
coming back to life in the final run-up to election day on November 6.
Romney gingerly
returned to the campaign trail in the key swing state of Florida, but he too
addressed the plight of storm-battered Americans hundreds of miles to the
north.
"So please,
if you have an extra dollar or two, please, send them along and keep the people
who have been in harm's way... in your thoughts and prayers," he told
about 2 000 people in an airport hangar in Tampa.
As the scale of
the disaster sank in, about 10 000 National Guard troops deployed to storm-hit
states to help local authorities rescue stranded survivors, remove debris, direct
traffic and assess the damage from the air, the Pentagon said.
While National
Guard trucks rolled through the flooded streets of New Jersey, troops offered
help along a main highway in the mountains of snow-struck West Virginia.
Army engineers stood
ready to provide pumps and generators as needed while the US Navy sent out
three amphibious ships off the New Jersey coast in case state governments
requested aid for rescue operations.
Insured losses
from Sandy could run between $7bn and $15bn, according to initial industry
estimates
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