Power returns, but not for everyone
Source: Agencies |
November 4, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE lower Manhattan skyline lit up early yesterday morning for the first time since superstorm Sandy slammed into the US northeast, while thousands of storm victims in New Jersey and elsewhere remained in the dark and awaiting disaster relief.
Power restoration came as gasoline supplies headed to coastal zones devastated by the record storm surge and to motorists whose patience has been tested by gasoline rationing during the painstaking effort to rebuild.
With the US presidential election just three days away, about 3 million homes and business remained without power in a region choked with debris and long gas lines reminiscent of the 1970s-era US fuel shortage.
President Barack Obama won early praise for the federal response to Sandy, which hammered the US northeast coast on Monday with 130-kilometer per hour winds and a record surge of seawater that swamped homes in New Jersey and flooded streets and subways in New York City.
But television and newspaper images of upset storm victims could hurt the Democrat, who is locked in a virtual draw with Republican Mitt Romney.
The US death toll hit 102 on Friday, after Sandy killed 69 people as a hurricane in the Caribbean. It struck the New Jersey coast on Monday as a rare hybrid after the hurricane merged with a storm system in the north Atlantic.
To ease fuel shortages, the Obama administration directed the purchase of up to 45 million liters of unleaded fuel and 38 million liters of diesel.
It also announced it would tap reserves for diesel for emergency responders and waived rules barring foreign-flagged ships from taking fuel from the Gulf of Mexico to northeast ports.
Power restoration came as gasoline supplies headed to coastal zones devastated by the record storm surge and to motorists whose patience has been tested by gasoline rationing during the painstaking effort to rebuild.
With the US presidential election just three days away, about 3 million homes and business remained without power in a region choked with debris and long gas lines reminiscent of the 1970s-era US fuel shortage.
President Barack Obama won early praise for the federal response to Sandy, which hammered the US northeast coast on Monday with 130-kilometer per hour winds and a record surge of seawater that swamped homes in New Jersey and flooded streets and subways in New York City.
But television and newspaper images of upset storm victims could hurt the Democrat, who is locked in a virtual draw with Republican Mitt Romney.
The US death toll hit 102 on Friday, after Sandy killed 69 people as a hurricane in the Caribbean. It struck the New Jersey coast on Monday as a rare hybrid after the hurricane merged with a storm system in the north Atlantic.
To ease fuel shortages, the Obama administration directed the purchase of up to 45 million liters of unleaded fuel and 38 million liters of diesel.
It also announced it would tap reserves for diesel for emergency responders and waived rules barring foreign-flagged ships from taking fuel from the Gulf of Mexico to northeast ports.
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