Wet snow and power outages hit recovering East Coast

Households in the country's most densely populated region that had waited for days without power after Superstorm Sandy were plunged back into darkness, with temperatures near freezing.

|
Frank Franklin II/AP
Sanitation workers shovel snow from the streets of Times Square Wednesday, Nov. 7, in New York. Coastal residents of New York and New Jersey faced new warnings to evacuate their homes and airlines canceled hundreds of flights as a new storm arrived Wednesday, only a week after Superstorm Sandy left dozens dead and millions without power.

The New York-New Jersey region woke up to a layer of wet snow and more power outages Thursday after a new storm pushed back efforts to recover from a superstorm had left millions powerless and dozens dead last week. The storm did not bring a second wave of flooding that some had feared.

"My son had just got his power back 2 days ago now along comes this nor'easter and it's out again," Mark L. Fendrick, of New York City's Staten Island, tweeted.

Households in the country's most densely populated region that had waited for days without power after Superstorm Sandy were plunged back into darkness, with temperatures near freezing.

But the new storm didn't appear to rouse exhausted residents to a new chorus of complaints.

"Things are not worse, and for that I am thankful," said Iliay Bardash, 61, a Staten Island resident who has been without electricity since last week.

Roads in New Jersey and New York City were clear for Thursday's morning commute, and rail lines into New York were running smoothly, despite snow still coming down heavily in some areas.

Parts of battered New Jersey had just over 12 inches (304 millimeters) of snow overnight. Residents from Connecticut to Rhode Island saw up to 6 inches (152 millimeters).

In New Jersey, utilities reported about 390,000 power outages early Thursday. About 160,000 of those were new. In New York City and neighboring Westchester County, more than 70,000 customers were without power after the storm knocked out an additional 55,000 customers. Long Island had 60,000 new outages in a region where 300,000 customers were already without power.

"I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday as thestorm approached, public works crews built up dunes to protect the coast and new shelters opened.

Airlines canceled at least 1,300 U.S. flights in and out of the New York metropolitan area Wednesday, causing a new round of disruptions that rippled across the country.

The region's greatest challenge remains finding emergency housing for tens of thousands of people, in some cases for the long term.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said 95,000 people in New York and New Jersey are eligible for emergency housing assistance.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Wet snow and power outages hit recovering East Coast
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1108/Wet-snow-and-power-outages-hit-recovering-East-Coast
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe