Power returns to much of Manhattan after Sandy as officials warn residents there is still a 'long, hard road to recovery'
The lights were back on in lower Manhattan early on Saturday as New York began to approach normality five days after superstorm Sandy passed through.
Power has been restored to about 70% of customers who lost it, according to mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, while New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that 80% of subway service had been restored.
Power company Con Ed said that in the pre-dawn hours it managed to turn the power back on for residents in New York City neighbourhoods including Wall Street, Chinatown and Greenwich Village. Just 11,000 customers in Manhattan were still without service, following what the power company described as the worst natural disaster it had ever had to contend with.
But beyond Manhattan, serious problems remain. Some 3m homes in the north-east remained without electricity and drivers continued to struggle to fill up their cars at gas pumps across the region.
The death toll in the US from Sandy's destructive winds and floods has risen to 102, adding to the scores of people killed in the Caribbean.
In a bid to ease the plight of those still suffering the effects of Sandy, the administration gave the green light for the government purchase up to 12m gallons of unleaded fuel and 10m gallons of diesel.
The gas is being sent to New York and New Jersey this weekend. Hours of queuing up at the pump has already spilled over into anger in isolated instances.
In the New York City borough of Queens, a man was accused of pulling a gun during a confrontation with a motorist over allegations he cut in line. The gas shortage has also led to fears that the cleanup operation could be hampered, with rescue and emergency services amongst those hit.
In New Jersey, governor Chris Christie put in place gas rationing to make scarce stocks last longer. Under the "odd-even" plan license plates ending in different numbers would be eligible to fill up on different days.
After days of touring devastated communities, Barack Obama is due get back on the campaign trail for the first time on Saturday, with an appearance on the stump in Ohio, a key battleground state.
The Democrat has had to walk a fine balance in recent days, not wanting to be seen prioritising his re-election over duties overseeing the clean-up operation.
Ahead of returning to the campaign trail, Obama is due to meet with homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano and director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Craig Fugate to discuss the emergency response to the storm.
In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Obama focused on the measures put in place to get the north-east region up and running again.
"Our number one concern has been making sure that affected states and communities have everything they need to respond to and recover from this storm," he said.
But we warned that the "recovery will be a long, hard road for many communities".
"There's a lot of work ahead," he added.
Indeed, despite the return of power to much on Manhattan, power firms continue to struggle to restore lines for hundreds of thousands of customers.
In New York, some 908,000 homes are without electricity, with the Long Island Power Authority alone reporting outages affecting 460,000 families.
In New Jersey, more than 600,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity Saturday.
Meanwhile, modeling has suggested that the US may have been hit with a bill of $20bn in insured damage and $50bn in loss of economic activity as a result of super storm Sandy.
But with the lights back on in lower Manhattan, many New Yorkers shut out from their offices for a week look set to commute to their workplace on Monday under a familiar glow.
- Hurricane Sandy
- New York
- US weather
- New Jersey
- United States
- Hurricanes
- Andrew Cuomo
- Michael Bloomberg
- New York