After ravaging the Eastern Seaboard earlier this week, Hurricane Sandy has left the region, dissipating over mainland America, and morphing into snowstorms in West Virginia, but the damage is far from done.
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New York City subway reopens with minimal service
New York City slowly crawled back to life Oct. 31 with some bus lines resuming service, and waving fares for the time being. Nov. 1 found the city's subway system - the MTA - restoring minimal service across the city, though the 3, 7, B, C, E, G and Q trains remained down. Four of the seven subway tunnels under the East River remained flooded, and there was no service in Manhattan below 34th Street, where the power is still out.
"We are slowly getting back to normal and a healthy mass transit system is going to be a big contributing factor in the city getting back on its feet," MTA spokesman Charles Seaton said.
Subway rides were free, and commuters were ready to get back to work, many crowding platforms even before the trains began running again around 5:10 a.m., the New York Daily News reported. Authorities are encouraging commuters to use mass transit rather than drive, as roads and bridges in and out of the city are choked with an influx of traffic after being closed for days.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and state Governor Andrew Cuomo said private cars must carry at least three people in order to enter New York, after the city was clogged by traffic on Wednesday.
Airports reopen
LaGuardia airport in New York was scheduled to reopen on Nov. 1 with limited service, after John F. Kennedy and Newark, New Jersey, airports reopened with limited service on Oct. 31.
Death roll rises
At least 82 people in North America died during Hurricane Sandy's attack, which ravaged the northeastern United States on the evening of Oct. 29, and officials said the count could climb even higher as rescuers searched house-to-house through coastal towns, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Sandy began in the Caribbean as a late-season hurricane, where it killed 69 people, before making landfall near Atlantic City, N.J. in the U.S. with 80 mph winds. A full moon when the storm struck at high tide, around 8:10 p.m. on Oct. 29 created a record 13-foot storm surge that flooded lower Manhattan.
Before dissipating and moving over the American mainland, Hurricane Sandy stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades.
Power outages
About 4.7 million homes and businesses in 15 U.S. states were without power on Nov. 1, down from a high of nearly 8.5 million, which surpassed the record 8.4 million customers who went dark from last year's Hurricane Irene, according to the New York Daily News.
Obama surveys storm damage as Romney campaigns
President Barack Obama viewed flooded New Jersey shore communities on a helicopter tour of the state with Republican Governor Chris Christie on Oct. 31.
"The entire country's been watching. Everyone knows how hard Jersey has been hit," Obama told people at an evacuation shelter in the town of Brigantine.
The incumbent presidential candidate will return to the campaign trail today. After taking a three day leave from campaining to address Hurricane Sandy's impact, he enjoys a political rarity for a democratic president: a resounding endorsement from a republican. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey praised his disaster response in New Jersey.
Numerous news sources are scrutinizing Governor Mitt Romney's flip-flopping position on the federally funded aid service FEMA, a service the Republican candidate had claimed he would cut funding for in the past, yet supported with fresh vigor while campaigning in landlocked Ohio as the storm raged on.
Benefit concert
New Jersey son Bruce Springsteen, along with Jon Bon Jovi, and Sting, will headline a benefit concert for storm victims Friday night on NBC television, the network announced.