Hurricane Sandy's aftermath is one that many didn't imagine would be a total heartbreak.

Many areas of New York City were hit, including Rockaway, Breezy Point, Lower Manhattan, and Staten Island.

According to the LA Times, 19 of New York City's 44 storm-related fatalities were in Staten Island's evacuation zones such as Oakwood Beach, Midland Beach, South Beach and Tottenville.

The dead included an 80-year-old woman, Beatrice Spagnuolo, and 13-year-old Angela Dresch, an eighth-grader who was washed out of her home by a monster wave, her body found a block away. Also killed was Artur Kasprzak, an off-duty New York police officer, who guided seven members of his family to safety in the attic as the waters rose.

On Thursday, police recovered two young bodies from a marsh. The Staten Island mother, Glenda Moore, tried to escape the "superstorm" in her SUV but it stalled, and the gushing water snatched 2-year-old Brandon and 4-year-old Conner from her arms after they tried to escape, according to Associated Press.

This came after residents complained that help is coming slowly for Staten Island, who may have gotten hit the hardest. They say that their isolated island has been largely forgotten by federal officials assessing damage of the storm.

"Garbage is piling up, a stench hangs in the air and mud-caked mattresses and couches line the streets. Residents are sifting through the remains of their homes, searching for anything that can be salvaged," AP said of Staten Island conditions.

"We have hundreds of people in shelters," said James Molinaro, the borough's president. "Many of them, when the shelters close, have nowhere to go because their homes are destroyed. These are not homeless people. They're homeless now."

Molinaro complained the American Red Cross "is nowhere to be found" - and some residents questioned what they called the lack of a response by government disaster relief agencies," AP reported.

Other areas in New York City are getting frustrated as well. Many gas stations ran out of gas as people try to get out of their ravaged communities. Millions of people are still without power, three days after Sandy hit.

Those who still have a dry and working car are lining up to get gas at stations where they still is resources, but the long lines are getting to them.

AP reported that in Queens, a man was accused of pulling a gun on a motorist who complained when he cut in line at a gas station; no one was injured.

"It's too much. You're in your house. You're freezing," said Geraldine Giordano, 82, a lifelong resident of the West Village. Near her home, city employees had set up a sink where residents could get fresh water, if they needed it. There were few takers. "Nobody wants to drink that water," Giordano said.

"Everybody's tired of it already," added Rosemarie Zurlo, a makeup artist who once worked on Woody Allen movies, according to AP. She said she planned to temporarily abandon her powerless, unheated apartment in the West Village to stay with her sister in Brooklyn. "I'm leaving because I'm freezing. My apartment is ice cold."

The race to restore power is furious. According to WPTV, Con Edison said that they are dedicated to getting power back for thousands of residents in NYC.

"We're doing our damnedest to get our power back as quickly as possible," said John Miksad, senior vice president of electric operations at Con Ed.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a letter to utilities, warned of consequences if authorities discover they failed to prepare properly, WPTV reported.

"Under such circumstances, I would direct the Public Service Commission to commence a proceeding to revoke your certificates," he wrote.

NBC News reported that the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy -  severe flooding, damaged houses, widespread outages, a crushed transit system - is a wake up call for NYC, and how to protect it needs to be a priority.

"Hurricane Sandy is a wake-up call to all of us in this city and on Long Island," Malcolm Bowman, professor of physical oceanography at State University of New York at Stony Brook, told NBC's Richard Engel, who surveyed the damage from a police helicopter Thursday. "That means designing and building storm surge barriers like many cities in Europe already have."

"If we had such barriers in place during Hurricane Sandy there would have been no damage at all."