New Yorkers awoke to the rumble of subway trains for the first time in four days yesterday in one sign of recovery from Sandy’s devastating blow. However, elsewhere in the storm-struck US Northeast, gasoline shortages persisted and emergency teams struggled to reach the worst-hit areas and restore power to millions of people.
At least 76 people in North America died in superstorm Sandy, which rampaged through the US Northeast on Monday night, and officials said the count could still rise as rescuers searched house-to-house through coastal towns.
After a three-day hiatus, US President Barack Obama was to return to the campaign trail, boosted in his re-election bid by a resounding endorsement of his leadership from the Republican governor of New Jersey.
Photo: Reuters
The Democratic incumbent, tied in polls with Mitt Romney ahead of Tuesday’s election, begins a two-day trip to the swing states of Colorado, Ohio and Nevada while his Republican challenger travels to Virginia.
Obama viewed flooded and sand-swept neighborhoods of New Jersey on a helicopter tour of the state with Republican Governor Chris Christie on Wednesday.
“The entire country’s been watching. Everyone knows how hard Jersey has been hit,” Obama told residents at an evacuation shelter in the town of Brigantine.
In New York, limited train service returned on some train and subway lines, but more than half of the gas stations in the city and New Jersey remained shut due to power outages and depleted fuel supplies. Even before dawn, long lines formed at gas stations that were expected to open.
Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the US with 130kph winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the US in decades. Towns along the New Jersey shore took much of the brunt. Homes were flooded, boardwalks were washed away and gas mains ruptured.
The extent of destruction in the New York City borough of Staten Island became clearer yesterday, where whole houses were picked up off their foundations. Some 34 people were killed in New York City, a police spokesman said yesterday, 15 of them in Staten Island, nine in Queens, seven in Brooklyn and three in Manhattan.
In Jersey City, across the Hudson River from New York, drivers negotiated intersections without the aid of traffic lights. Shops were shuttered and lines formed outside pharmacies while people piled sodden mattresses and furniture along the side of the roads. The city has issued a curfew on people and businesses as well as a driving ban from 7pm to 7am.
New Yorkers faced an easier commute than on Wednesday as the subway system resumed limited operations, but four of the seven subway tunnels under the East River remained flooded and there was no service in Manhattan below 34th Street.
New York 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.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a