The northeastern United States woke up in shock on Tuesday after one of the worst storms in the country’s history. Sandy, who has killed at least 32 people on the East Coast and destroyed swathes of the coastline, promises to cripple New York for several days and disrupt the course of the election campaign within a week of the presidential.
About 7 million people were without power in 13 states as of Tuesday. Three nuclear power plant reactors were shut down as a precaution. President Obama has declared “a state of natural disaster” in the states of New York and New Jersey. He “kept abreast” of the situation all night from Monday to Tuesday, the police said. White House, and he suspended his campaign until Wednesday, inclusive. He received an unexpected – but very welcome – tribute from one of Mitt Romney’s strongest Republican backers, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: “The president has been great. I spoke to him three times yesterday, he called me the last time at midnight to ask me what I needed, and I asked him to expedite the declaration of major disaster, Christie said. He hasn’t spoken about the election once, and if he himself, who’s a candidate, doesn’t speak about it, you can be sure the people of New Jersey aren’t interested either. “
The drowned metro
New Yorkers who saw torrents of water flood the streets of lower Manhattan on Monday night found streets littered with rubbish on Tuesday. The Halloween decorations add to the ghostly aspect of the city. The president of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, Joseph Lhota, who manages the New York transport network, considered the damage to the subway very serious. “In 108 years, our employees have never faced a challenge like the one we are facing,” he said. Pumping the water could take four days.
Buses are expected to be partially restored on Wednesday, but the trains that carry millions of people from New Jersey to New York every day may not be back in service for a week. Some 750,000 people are still without electricity in New York City, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. As Sandy heads to Canada, the financial and economic capital of the United States slowly tries to emerge from paralysis. The New York Stock Exchange is expected to reopen on Wednesday, but public schools and airports remain closed until further notice. Two bridges were reopened to traffic on Tuesday, while several tunnels remain blocked.
Wagons on the highway
The devastation produced spectacular images: train cars were spotted on a New Jersey highway, a 700-ton tanker ran aground on Staten Island, an island opposite Manhattan. On the countryside, Mitt Romney arrived in Ohio to organize a food drive for Sandy’s victims. “We can’t fix all the problems, but we are doing what we can,” he said, reduced to a spectator role. He has chosen to return to the key presidential state and is due to campaign in Florida on Wednesday.
President Obama instructed Bill Clinton to campaign in his stead in a dozen pivotal states, including Pennsylvania and Minnesota, so far considered out of reach for Republicans. Both camps released new negative ads on Tuesday. Echoing the outrage expressed by Camp Obama, Ohio newspapers criticized a Mitt Romney ad casting doubt on the auto industry bailout.
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