PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA toured New Jersey’s devastated coastline yesterday, vowing to stay with flood victims “for the long haul” as the US toll from superstorm Sandy passed 60.

New York slowly got back on its feet. The stock exchanges and John F Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports reopened. But more than six million homes and businesses, the majority of them in New York state and neighboring New Jersey, remained without power.

Damage

The true extent of one of the largest and most destructive storms ever to strike the United States became clearer – entire coastal communities in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey are submerged or cut off by floodwaters.

US media reports said 63 Americans had been confirmed dead across 15 storm-ravaged states, bringing Sandy’s overall toll to 135 including Canada and the Caribbean, where Haiti and Cuba were hit particularly hard.

Just six days before America goes to the polls, with his re-election chances hanging in the balance, Obama surveyed the damage in New Jersey, where a massive relief operation had swung into gear with tens of thousands of homes under water.

Taking a third day off the campaign trail to manage the response to the disaster despite Tuesday’s looming election, Obama, accompanied by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, offered a show of strength and support to victims.

He told a group of evacuees at a makeshift shelter after listening to stories of loss and survival:

You guys are in my thoughts and prayers. We are going to be here for the long haul.

Obama and Christie clambered aboard the president’s Marine One helicopter to fly over New Jersey’s Atlantic coast.

Although the main focus was on New Jersey and New York, particularly lower Manhattan and Long Island, Obama said he was also concerned about Connecticut and West Virginia, where heavy snows had made certain areas inaccessible.

“We are here for you. And we will not forget. We will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you’ve rebuilt,” he said, adding: “we will not quit until this is done.”

New York

While many towns and cities along the US East Coast remained paralysed following Monday’s onslaught by superstorm Sandy, buses were back on New York streets and state Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that limited subway services would resume Thursday.

New York’s LaGuardia airport was also expected to reopen today. At last count, 19,500 flights had been cancelled because of Sandy, tracking service flightaware.com said.

Limited commuter rail service to New York suburbs resumed Wednesday, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced temporary car pooling rules to reduce the gridlock choking Manhattan.

Despite these improvements, large sections of New York, including many skyscrapers in lower Manhattan, remained without electricity, and schools throughout the city were to remain shuttered for the rest of the week.

The presidential election campaign, which went into a hiatus during the storm, was coming back to life in the final run-up to election day on November 6.

Romney gingerly returned to the campaign trail in the key swing state of Florida, but he too addressed the plight of storm-battered Americans:

So please, if you have an extra dollar or two, please, send them along and keep the people who have been in harm’s way… in your thoughts and prayers.

As the scale of the disaster sank in, about 10,000 National Guard troops deployed to storm-hit states to help local authorities rescue stranded survivors, remove debris, direct traffic and assess the damage from the air, the Pentagon said.

While National Guard trucks rolled through the flooded streets of New Jersey, troops offered help along a main highway in the mountains of snow-struck West Virginia.

Insured losses from Sandy could run between seven and $15 billion (€5.4 to €11.5 billion), according to initial industry estimates.

- © AFP, 2012