Sandy Damage Could Top 20 Billion
- Residents of the areas pummeled by superstorm Sandy began to look
towards rebuilding efforts Wednesday, though many remain without power,
neighborhoods remain strewn with debris and many transportation systems
remain closed. At least 55 people have been reported dead as a result of
the storm, which one economic firm predicted caused up $20 billion in
damage.
New York City buses resumed their
schedule and the New York Stock Exchange prepared to reopen its trading
floor Wednesday, but it became clear that restoring the region to some
semblance of normalcy could take days or considerably longer for
communities that were the hardest hit.
“We will get through the days ahead by
doing what we always do in tough times — by standing together, shoulder
to shoulder, ready to help a neighbor, comfort a stranger and get the
city we love back on its feet,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
As of early Wednesday, Sandy had left at
least 55 people dead along the Atlantic Coast, and had destroyed
beachfront homes and boardwalks from the mid-Atlantic states to southern
New England. The storm later moved across Pennsylvania on a predicted
path toward New York State and Canada. -