NOV 1,12 DAY 4 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATE

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.

MATTHEW 16:1-4
1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

DAY 1 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/updates-on-hurricane-sandy.html
DAY 2 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/no-ny-trading-today-again.html
DAY 3 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/10/day-3-hurricane-sandy-update.html 

DAY 4 HURRICANE SANDY UPDATES-HAPPENINGS

ITS 12:00 THU NOV 1,12 AND LIMITED SUBWAY STATIONS WILL BE OPENED TODAY. 

ITS 10:20AM AND I DON'T LIKE THAT THE LAMESTREAM MEDIA ARE POLITICIZING THIS DISASTER.ALL I HEAR ON THE LAMESTREAM MEDIA IS CHRISTIE AND OBAMA ARE SUDDENLY THE BEST OF PALS AND HOW THIS AFFECTS ROMNEYS CHANCES OF WINNING THE ELECTIONS.WELL I SAY THIS IS WHAT OBAMA MUST DO IS GIVE MONEY AND HELP TO USA COUNTRIES IN THE DISASTER OF SANDY.THIS IS NO POLITICAL THING,THIS IS OBAMAS RESPONSIBILITY TO GIVE AIDE TO AMERICAN CITIES AND NOT MUSLIM COUNTRIES LIKE OBAMA IS CURRENTLY DOING.SO LAMESTREAM-DUMBDOWN MEDIA LETS GET THE STORY STRAIGHT AND QUIT TRYING TO MAKE OBAMA LOOK LIKE THE SAVIOUR FROM THIS STORM WHEN THATS THE PRESIDENTS RESPONSIBILITY AS A LEGAL PRESIDENT OF AMERICA.TO SAVE AMERICAN CITIES AND RESIDENTS.AND AS FOR SANDY 82 ARE DEAD AND AT LEAST 5 MILLION ARE STILL WITHOUT POWER.

New York City subways to reopen Thursday with limited runs, Cuomo says

Reuters – 12:00AM NOV 1,12

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's subway system will resume limited operations on Thursday, four days after it was shut down ahead of the arrival of Sandy, the massive storm that brought unprecedented flooding to the world's financial capital, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.Limited service on suburban commuter rail lines serving Long Island to the east and Westchester County and Connecticut to the north was to resume on Wednesday afternoon, Cuomo said at a press conference. Trains were to begin operating on the Long Island Railroad and Metro North Railroad systems at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Wednesday.Cuomo said the restored subway service would be supplemented by a "bus bridge" between Manhattan and Brooklyn given that four of the seven tunnels connecting the two boroughs under the East River remain flooded. Three of the seven tunnels were now clear of water, he said.In Manhattan, there would be no subway service south of 34th Street, Cuomo said.New York City was brought to a near standstill by flooding, power outages and transportation closures after the storm hit Monday night.The city counts an average of 5.3 million riders each weekday. The system, which runs around the clock, comprises 21 subway routes linked by 468 stations, and stretches across 660 miles of track.Cuomo said officials faced huge task to restore not only transportation services but other key portions of the city's infrastructure damaged when Sandy swept a record storm surge of nearly 14 feet over southern Manhattan and other low-lying waterfront neighborhoods."It was frightening. It was frightening. It looked apocalyptic," Cuomo said of the flooding he witnessed on Monday night at the height of the storm.(Reporting By Dan Burns and Paul Thomasch)

US region hit by Sandy slowly resumes daily life, but thousands still trapped in homes

By Adam Geller, The Associated Press | Associated Press – 10:20AM NOV 1,12

NEW YORK, N.Y. - People along the battered U.S. East Coast slowly began reclaiming their daily routines Thursday, even as crews searched for victims and tens of thousands remained without power after superstorm Sandy claimed more than 70 lives.The New York Stock Exchange came back to life, and two major New York airports reopened to begin the long process of moving stranded travellers around the world.New York's three major airports were expected to be open Thursday morning with limited flights. Limited service on the subway, which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history, would resume Thursday.President Barack Obama landed in New Jersey on Wednesday, which was hardest hit by Monday's hurricane-driven storm, and he took a helicopter tour of the devastation with Gov. Chris Christie. "We're going to be here for the long haul," Obama told people at one emergency shelter.For the first time since the storm pummeled the heavily populated Northeast, doing billions of dollars in damage, brilliant sunshine washed over New York City, for a while.At the stock exchange, running on generator power, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a thumbs-up and rang the opening bell to whoops from traders. Trading resumed after the first two-day weather shutdown since a blizzard in 1888.It was clear that restoring the region to its ordinarily frenetic pace could take days — and that rebuilding the hardest-hit communities and the transportation networks could take considerably longer.There were still only hints of the economic impact of the storm.Forecasting firm IHS Global Insight predicted it would cause $20 billion in damage and $10 billion to $30 billion in lost business. Another firm, AIR Worldwide, estimated losses up to $15 billion.
About 6 million homes and businesses were still without power, mostly in New York and New Jersey. Electricity was out as far west as Wisconsin in the Midwest and as far south as the Carolinas.In New Jersey, National Guard troops arrived in the heavily flooded city of Hoboken, just across the river from New York City, to help evacuate about 20,000 people still stuck in their homes and deliver ready-to-eat meals. Live wires dangled in floodwaters that Mayor Dawn Zimmer said were rapidly mixing with sewage.Tempers flared. A man screamed at emergency officials in Hoboken about why food and water had not been delivered to residents just a few blocks away. The man, who would not give his name, said he blew up an air mattress to float over to a staging area.As New York crept toward a semi-normal business day, morning rush-hour traffic was heavy as buses returned to the streets and bridges linking Manhattan to the rest of the world were open.A huge line formed at the Empire State Building as the observation deck reopened.
Tourism returned, but the city's vast and aging infrastructure remained a huge challenge.Power company Consolidated Edison said it could be the weekend before power is restored to Manhattan and Brooklyn, perhaps longer for other New York boroughs and the New York suburbs.Amtrak said the amount of water in train tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers was unprecedented, but it said it planned to restore some service on Friday to and from New York City — its busiest corridor — and would give details Thursday.
In Connecticut, some residents of Fairfield returned home in kayaks and canoes to inspect widespread damage left by retreating floodwaters that kept other homeowners at bay."The uncertainty is the worst," said Jessica Levitt, who was told it could be a week before she can enter her house. "Even if we had damage, you just want to be able to do something. We can't even get started."In New York, residents of the flooded beachfront neighbourhood of Breezy Point returned home to find fire had taken everything the water had not. A huge blaze destroyed perhaps 100 homes in the close-knit community where many had stayed behind despite being told to evacuate.John Frawley, who lived about five houses from the fire's edge, said he spent the night terrified "not knowing if the fire was going to jump the boulevard and come up to my house."
"I stayed up all night," he said. "The screams. The fire. It was horrifying."___Contributors to this report included Associated Press writers Angela Delli Santi in Belmar, New Jersey; Geoff Mulvihill and Larry Rosenthal in Trenton, New Jersey; Katie Zezima in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Samantha Henry in Jersey City, New Jersey; Pat Eaton-Robb and Michael Melia in Hartford, Connecticut; Susan Haigh in New London, Connecticut; John Christoffersen in Bridgeport, Connecticut; Alicia Caldwell and Martin Crutsinger in Washington; David Klepper in South Kingstown, Rhode Island; David B. Caruso, Colleen Long, Jennifer Peltz, Tom Hays, Larry Neumeister, Ralph Russo and Scott Mayerowitz in New York.

Three days after Sandy, 659,000 ConEd customers in NY powerless

Reuters – 9:30AM NOV 1,12

(Reuters) - New York power company Consolidated Edison Inc said Thursday it still had about 659,400 homes and businesses without power three days after monster storm Sandy slammed into the U.S. East Coast.Sandy hit the East Coast late Monday leaving more than 8.48 million customers without power in 21 states from North Carolina to Maine and as far west as Illinois.Con Edison said in a report it has restored power to more than 225,000 customers since Sandy's departure.The company said the storm was the worst natural disaster to strike its service area.Con Edison said it expects to make significant progress restoring electricity over the next two days with help from additional crews from around the country arriving daily from as far away as California.That is consistent with the company's earlier expectations.On Wednesday, the company said customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn served by underground equipment should have power back within three days and said it would take at least a week to restore all of those in areas served by overhead power lines.As of 4:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, Con Edison said about 227,000 customers were still out in Manhattan, 103,000 in Queens, 59,000 in Brooklyn, 83,000 in Staten Island, 36,000 in the Bronx and 166,000 in Westchester County. (By 8.45 a.m., the total number of clients was down to 659,400.)
Late Wednesday, Con Edison said it restored power to customers served by two underground electrical networks in Manhattan and Brooklyn that were taken out Monday night as the floodwaters from the storm were surging.The networks serve about 2,000 customers in lower Manhattan and 28,200 in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. Con Edison warned that some buildings in restored neighborhoods may still be without electricity due to basement flooding or damage to local equipment.(Reporting By Scott DiSavino; Editing by Claudia Parsons)

Death toll up, gasoline lines grow in monster storm's wake

By Edward Krudy | Reuters – 10:35AM NOV 1,12

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers awoke to the rumble of subway trains for the first time in four days on Thursday and the death toll continued to rise from the former hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest and most devastating storms ever to hit the United States.Lines formed at gas stations amid fuel shortages around the U.S. Northeast and emergency utility crews struggled to reach the worst hit areas and restore power to millions of people.At least 82 people in North America died in the superstorm, which ravaged the northeastern United States on Monday night, and officials said the count could climb higher as rescuers searched house-to-house through coastal towns.More deaths were recorded overnight as the extent of destruction became clearer in the New York City borough of Staten Island, where the storm lifted whole houses off their foundations.Authorities recovered 15 bodies from Staten Island. Among those still missing were two boys aged 4 and 2 who were swept from their mother's arms by the floodwaters, the New York Post reported. In all, 34 people died in New York City.In hard-hit New Jersey, where oceanside towns saw entire neighborhoods swallowed by seawater and the Atlantic City boardwalk was destroyed, the death toll doubled to 12.New Jersey favorite son Bruce Springsteen, along with Jon Bon Jovi and Sting, will headline a benefit concert for storm victims Friday night on NBC television, the network announced.Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the United States with 80 mph winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades.About 4.7 million homes and businesses in 15 U.S. states were without power on Thursday, down from a high of nearly 8.5 million, which surpassed the record 8.4 million customers who went dark from last year's Hurricane Irene.Sandy made landfall in New Jersey with a full moon around high tide, creating a record storm surge that flooded lower Manhattan. By Thursday, the storm had dissipated over the North American mainland.After a three-day hiatus, President Barack Obama was due to return to the campaign trail on Thursday, boosted in his re-election bid by a resounding endorsement of his disaster response from the Republican governor of New Jersey.The Democratic incumbent, tied in polls with Mitt Romney before 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 New Jersey shore communities 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 people 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 neighboring 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.Fuel supplies into New York and New Jersey were being choked off in several ways. Two refineries that make up a quarter of the region's refining capacity were still idle due to power outages or flooding. The New York Harbor waterway that imports a fifth of the area's fuel was still closed to traffic, and major import terminals were damaged and powerless.In addition, the main oil pipeline from the Gulf Coast, which pumps 15 percent of the East Coast's fuel, remained shut.Matthew Gessler of Brooklyn went to Breezy Point, a New York neighborhood where fire destroyed 111 homes, to inspect damage to his mother's house. Like others, he likened it to a war zone.He said you could take a picture of the devastation and say it was the Middle East "and no one would doubt you at all."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 as well as a driving ban from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

New Yorkers faced an easier commute 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, where the power is still out.Subway rides were free as authorities encouraged commuters to use mass transit rather than drive. 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.LaGuardia airport in New York was scheduled to reopen on Thursday with limited service. John F. Kennedy and Newark, New Jersey, airports reopened with limited service on Wednesday.(Additional reporting by Michael Erman, Anna Louie Sussman, Atossa Abrahamian, Martinne Geller and Scott DiSavino in New York, Susan Heavey in Washington, Ian Simpson in West Virginia and Mark Felsenthal in Atlantic City, N.J.; Writing by Eddie Evans and Daniel Trotta)

NJ power firm PSEG says Sandy severely damaged infrastructure

By Swetha Gopinath | Reuters – 1:45PM NOV 1,12

(Reuters) - Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, the biggest utility in New Jersey, said superstorm Sandy had caused severe damage to its infrastructure and it expected its losses to be material.About 775,000 PSEG customers were still without power on Thursday, down from about 1.7 million at the peak, PSEG Chief Executive Ralph Izzo said, adding that it would take seven to 10 days to fully restore service.

Towns along the New Jersey shore took much of the brunt of Sandy, which barreled through the U.S. Northeast on Monday night, flooding homes, washing away boardwalks and rupturing gas mains as well as crippling power supplies.The U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday that about 4.7 million homes and businesses in 12 states still lacked power in the wake of the storm.PSEG, whose shares were down 2 percent, said it was unable to estimate total losses from Sandy, which damaged transmission, distribution and generating systems and flooded a large number of substations along the Passaic, Raritan and Hudson rivers, causing the worst outage in the company's history."Probably the most significant damage we sustained was due to a tidal surge ... that hit the northern part of the territory, and uniquely did some damage to our transmission system and some of our switching stations," Izzo said in a call with investment analysts, where he also praised President Barack Obama."The President actually was willing to speak to a group of CEOs and me personally about what he could do to help us out. So all hands are on deck and everyone is pitching in," Izzo said.PSEG, which has about 2.2 million electricity and 1.8 million gas customers, said it intended to seek recovery from its insurers for some of the damage.Izzo said the company could not estimate the ultimate cost of the storm damage, but drew a comparison with Hurricane Irene which hit the same area last August.

"Irene had a 2 cents impact (per share) on operating and maintenance costs, with 3 cents of deferred costs," Izzo said."Now this storm is different in two major ways -- it is bigger ... (and) has a lot more transmission outage," he said.Sandy appears to have easily caused twice or even three times the losses of Hurricane Irene, catastrophe forecasting companies said on Tuesday.PSEG said it would seek to recover its storm-related costs from formula rates. The company's transmission facilities are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.Exelon Corp, a power company that serves Illinois and Pennsylvania, played down the impact of Sandy on its operations, saying that as long as the weather was normal for the rest the year, its full-year adjusted operating earnings would be higher than its prior forecast.PSEG said on Thursday its net income rose 18 percent to $347 million, or 68 cents per share, in the third quarter from $294 million, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier.PSEG's shares were trading at $31.36 on the New York Stock Exchange. Exelon shares were down about 2.6 percent at $34.84.PSEG filed a petition with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on October 26 seeking authorization to defer recording some costs related to the restoration of its gas and electric distribution systems.(Editing by Akshay Lodaya, Rodney Joyce and Ted Kerr)

Mayor says Sandy's death toll in New York City is at least 37

Reuters – 1:45PM NOV 1,12

NEW YORK (Reuters) - At least 37 people have been killed in New York City due to the massive storm Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday.Downtown Manhattan and parts of the city's Brooklyn borough remain without electricity, and restoration of power will "take time," Bloomberg said at a briefing.
Sunday's New York Marathon remained on schedule and is "not going to redirect any focus" from the city's safety and recovery efforts, he said.The city's schools are scheduled to reopen on Monday. Public school students have been out of school since Monday, when the massive storm slammed into the U.S. east coast, causing high winds and massive flooding.(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jackie Frank)

Looters Fail to Tear New York City Apart

By Dashiell Bennett | The Atlantic Wire – 23 hrs ago OCT 31,12

Despite pre-storm fears about roving gangs of bandits terrorizing a crippled city, the post-storm reality of crime in New York City is very... New York. The Wall Street Journal reports that there have been 13 arrests for various minor offenses, including burglary, trespass, and "mischief" since the hurricane blew through on Monday night. None of the crimes were violent and there have been no solidly confirmed reports of large disruptions or other violent crimes.That doesn't mean the city is completely crime-free. A handful of police precincts had to be evacuated due to the flooding and there were sporadic incidents of looting. Police were apparently helpless to stop a local laundromat from being overrun on Coney Island and a nearby pharmacy was also cleaned out of most of its prescription drugs. But judging by the pictures thieves appear to have left most of the other goods behind. That precinct, the 60th, was one of the hardest hits until police regrouped and took back their turf.But when you consider the level of theft crimes on an average day in New York City (when police stop-and-frisk hundreds of "suspicious" persons every single day), the number of incidents sounds pretty ordinary. Especially compared to incidents like the notorious 1977 "Bronx is Burning" blackout, when hundreds of New York business were burned and pillaged. Or even two days ago, when San Francisco saw torched cars and smashed buses in celebration of a measly World Series victory. A single fistfight between two neighbors is hardly unheard of in Brooklyn and given the tension and frayed nerves in high rises without electricity, it's miracle there weren't more riots. Or at least something worse than people trying to open broken arcade games on the Jersey Shore.Before Sandy even arrived, some conservative websites tried to stoke fears of wild gangs coordinating their destructive sprees on Twitter — who turned out to mostly be frat boys and high schoolers far away from the storm making dumb jokes — as if everything on the internet should be taken at face value and assumed to be part of a larger conspiracy. Yet, even the less hysterical fears have failed to materialize. It certainly helped that everyone, good and bad, was kept off the streets by the weather and police have made a concerted effort to make their presence known in every neighborhood. And the crimes may increase if the power doesn't come back on. But after September 11, 2001, and the blackout of 2003, New Yorkers seems to have found a way to peacefully get along when things get rough. When the worst you can say about Hurricane Sandy is that it compares favorably to a Los Angeles Lakers victory party, things suddenly don't look so bad.

Fuel scarce, East Coast struggles to recover

By Edith Honan and Joseph Ax | Reuters – 10:30PM NOV 1,12

NEW YORK/SEASIDE HEIGHTS, New Jersey (Reuters) - Rescuers searched flooded homes for survivors, drivers lined up for hours to get scarce gasoline and millions remained without power on Thursday as New York City and nearby towns struggled to recover from one of the biggest storms to hit the United States.New York subway trains crawled back to limited service after being shut down since Sunday, but the lower half of Manhattan still lacked power and surrounding areas such as Staten Island, the New Jersey shore and the city of Hoboken remained crippled from a record storm surge and flooding.At least 95 people died in the "superstorm" that ravaged the Northeastern United States on Monday. Officials said the number could rise as rescuers searched house-by-house in coastal towns."I worked all my life, and everything I had is right there," said Bob Stewart, 59, standing on the Jersey Shore beach in the town of Seaside Heights and looking at the pile of debris that was once his home. "I put my life right there."New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on Thursday that nearly a 1,000 people had been rescued by authorities.In blackened New York City neighborhoods, some residents complained there was a lack of police and feared an increase in crime. Some were also concerned about traffic safety. New York police officials were not immediately available to comment."People feel safe during the day but as soon as the sun sets, people are extremely scared. The fact that Guardian Angels are on the streets trying to restore law just shows how out of control the situation is in lower Manhattan," said Wolfgang Ban, owner of Edi & The Wolf restaurant in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighborhood.The Guardian Angels are a group of anti-crime volunteers.More than 15 people in the borough of Queens were charged with looting, and a man was charged on Thursday with threatening another driver with a gun after he tried to cut in on a line of cars waiting for gas, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.The financial cost of the storm promised to be staggering. Disaster modeling company Eqecat estimated Sandy caused up to $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses, double its previous forecast.At the high end of the range, Sandy would rank as the fourth costliest U.S. catastrophe ever, according to the Insurance Information Institute, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
POWER OUT, GAS SHORTAGE
The presidential campaign was back in full swing on Thursday after being on hold for several days because of the storm. President Barack Obama, locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney head of next Tuesday's election, appeared to gain politically from his disaster relief performance.Christie, a vocal Romney supporter, praised Obama, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent, endorsed Obama on Thursday.In New York, U.N. headquarters suffered severe damage and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered recovery help to the United States and Caribbean nations affected by the storm.The hunt for gasoline added to a climate of uncertainty as Sandy's death toll and price tag rose.

"I'm so stressed out," said Jessica Bajno, 29, a teacher from Elmont, Long Island, who was waiting in line for gas. "I've been driving around to nearby towns all morning, and being careful about not running out of gas in the process. Everything is closed. I'm feeling anxious."Some residents may lack electricity for weeks. New York utility Consolidated Edison restored power to 250,000 customers, with 650,000 others still in the dark.

The vast majority will be restored by the weekend of November 10-11, but "the remaining customer restorations could take an additional week or more," the company said.Advertising creative director Chris Swift, 37, lost power in his apartment in Manhattan's Chelsea district on Monday and by Thursday he was so fed up he got on a bus to Boston."I tried 20 (New York City) hotels on foot as couldn't call them with no battery left on my phone, but they were all booked. I tried to get to (friends in) Brooklyn but cabs would not take me as they we're running out gas," he said.About 4.6 million homes and businesses in 15 U.S. states were without power on Thursday, down from a record high of nearly 8.5 million.More deaths were recorded overnight in the New York borough of Staten Island, where authorities recovered 17 bodies after the storm lifted whole houses off their foundations. Among the dead were two boys, aged 4 and 2, who were swept from their mother's arms by the floodwaters, police said.In all, 39 people died in New York City, officials said."It was like living through Titanic but on ground," said Krystina Berrios, 25, of Staten Island, looking at her bedroom caked in mud, furniture upended. "You would never think in a million years having to live through something like this."
JERSEY SHORE FLOORED
Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the United States with 80-mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades.In New Jersey, where entire neighborhoods in oceanside towns were swallowed by seawater and the Atlantic City boardwalk was destroyed, the death toll rose to 13.Floodwaters receded from the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, leaving behind a smelly mess of submerged basements and cars littering the sidewalks."The water was rushing in. It was like a river coming," said Benedicte Lenoble, a photo researcher from Hoboken. "Now it's a mess everywhere. There's no power. The stores aren't open. Recovery? I don't know."New Jersey natives Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi will headline a benefit concert for storm victims Friday on NBC television, the network announced.The Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to cover 100 percent of emergency power and public transportation costs through November 9 for affected areas of New York and New Jersey, up from the traditional share of 75 percent.More than 36,000 disaster survivors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have applied for federal disaster assistance and more than $3.4 million in direct assistance has already been approved, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.The Pentagon was airlifting power restoration experts and trucks from California to New York to assist millions of people still living in darkness.Fuel supplies into New York and New Jersey were hit by idled refineries, a closed New York Harbor, damages to import terminals, and a closed oil pipeline.The scarcity of fuel, electricity and supplies made cleanup more daunting for barrier towns.

Seaside Heights residents who obeyed the mandatory evacuation order were cut off from their homes. The entire community was submerged by the storm surge, which washed over the island and into the bay that separates it from the mainland.Chris Delman, 30, saw a photograph of his house in a local newspaper on Wednesday. It was still standing."We ain't living in Seaside no more, that's obvious," Delman said. "I just want to know what I have left."(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus throughout the U.S. Northeast; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jim Loney and Peter Cooney)