NEW YORK (AP) — The nor'easter that stymied recovery efforts from Superstorm Sandy
pulled away from New York and New Jersey Thursday, leaving hundreds of
thousands of new people in darkness after a blanket of thick, wet snow
snapped storm-weakened trees and downed power lines.
From Brooklyn to storm-battered sections of the Jersey shore and Connecticut,
about 750,000 customers — more than 200,000 from the new storm — in the
region were without power in temperatures near freezing, some living
for days in the dark.
"We lost
power last week, just got it back for a day or two, and now we lost it
again," said John Monticello of Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. "Every day
it's the same now: turn on the gas burner for heat. Instant coffee. Use
the iPad to find out what's going on in the rest of the world."
But most were just grateful the new storm didn't bring a fresh round of devastation.
"For
a home without power, it's great. It came through the storm just
great," said Iliay Bardash, 61, a computer programmer on Staten Island
without electricity since last week. "But things are not worse, and for
that I am thankful."
Nearby,
Vladimir Repnin emerged from his powerless home with a snow shovel in
his hand, a cigarette in his mouth and a question from someone cut off
from the outside world.
"Who won? Obama?" he asked.
He didn't like the answer.
"The Democrats ruined my business," he said, referring to his shuttered clothing manufacturing firm.
Unlike
other holdouts who got by with generators or gas stoves, the
63-year-old from the Ukraine has been without power since Sandy brought
eight feet of water through his door and his neighbor's deck into his
yard. He tried to beat the cold Wednesday night by sleeping with his
Yorkie Kuzya and cat Channel.
"I
had the dog right here," he said, pointing to his left side, "and the
cat on my chest. It was still too cold, but I cannot leave my house."
Throughout
Staten Island's beach area, the storm had blanketed growing piles of
debris with several inches of snow. By mid-morning, it was starting to
melt, filling the streets with filthy sludge.
Roads in New Jersey and New York City were clear for the morning commute, and rail lines into New York were running smoothly so far, despite snow still coming down heavily in some areas.
The nor'easter, as promised, brought gusting winds, rain and snow, but not the flooding that was anticipated.
"The
good news, thank goodness, is except for maybe 2 inches of snow, there
were no other problems," said Randi Savron, 51, a schoolteacher who
lives in the Rockaways, one of the areas that flooded badly last week.
The idyllic beachfront boardwalk was loosed from pilings and ended up
outside her apartment building door.
She said it seemed like work would continue.
But
additional outages could stall recovery efforts, even though utility
companies had prepared, adding extra crews ahead of the nor'easter.
In
New Jersey, there were about 400,000 power outages early Thursday;
150,000 of those were new. In New York City and Westchester, more than
70,000 customers were without power after the storm knocked out an
additional 55,000 customers.
For Consolidated Edison, the extra
outages were dealt with swiftly, so there were only about 3,000
additional customers without power from the total Wednesday of 67,000."I think we're going to be able to power through. Our objective was to get power restored to everyone by the weekend and we're still working with that goal," said Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesman for the utility.
On Long Island, an area badly battered, there were 125,000 new outages, but about 80,000 were restored, making a total of about 300,000 customers without power. Long Island Power Authority spokesman Mark Gross said the utility was assessing new damage while working to restore outages.
Paul Farash of West Babylon, N.Y. said he got power back after three days and didn't lose it again.
"Whatever I experienced was minimal compared to a whole lot of other people," he said. "I've seen some things. I've heard about some things. and I know some things. And I'm counting my blessings. I'll survive."
Anthony Gragnano, who lives in Lindenhurst, worried the new storm would further stall getting power returned to his flooded family home.
"It's just colder now," he said. "We still don't have heat or power, but aside from a little snow, we're good."
Under
ordinary circumstances, a storm of this sort wouldn't be a big deal.
But large swaths of the landscape were still an open wound, with the
electrical system highly fragile and many of Sandy's victims still
mucking out their homes and cars and shivering in the deepening cold. As
the storm picked up in intensity Wednesday evening, lights started
flickering off again.
Residents
from Connecticut to Rhode Island saw 3 to 6 inches of snow on
Wednesday. Worcester, Mass., had 8 inches of snow, and Freehold, N.J.,
had just over a foot overnight. Some parts of Connecticut got a foot or
more.
There was good weather news: temperatures over the next few
days will be in the 50s in southern New England, said meteorologist
Frank Nocera, and on Sunday it could edge into the 60s.Ahead of the storm, public works crews in New Jersey built up dunes to protect the stripped and battered coast, and new evacuations were ordered in a number of communities already emptied by Sandy. New shelters opened.
All construction in New York City was halted — a precaution that needed no explanation after a crane collapsed last week in Sandy's high winds and dangled menacingly over the streets of Manhattan. Parks were closed because of the danger of falling trees.
Airlines canceled at least 1,300 U.S. flights in and out of the New York metropolitan area, causing a new round of disruptions that rippled across the country.
Sandy killed more than 100 people in 10 states, with most of the victims in New York and New Jersey.
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