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| Photo taken on Oct. 30, 2012 shows the post-Hurricane Sandy mess in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Xinhua/Zhang Jun) |
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Superstorm Sandy has claimed more than 40 lives by Tuesday in the United States, including 18 in New York City, after carving a trail of destruction from the Caribbean through the densely populated U.S. east coast to Canada.
The hurricane left cities in Chaos, streets flooded, homes damaged,millions of households without power. According to IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm, the superstorm will end up causing about 20 billion U.S. dollars in property damages and 10 billion to 30 billion dollars more in business losses.
Local media reports show that the storm has caused power outages affecting some 7 million homes, shut down 70 percent of East Coast oil refineries and inflicted worse-than-expected damage in the New York metro area, which produces about 10 percent of U.S. economic output.
More than 18,000 flight cancellations have been reported across the United States in the aftermath of the hurricane. Hundreds of thousands of travelers have been stranded across the country and around the world as airports from Washington to Boston are still closed.
In New York City, the superstorm overflowed the waterfront, flooded the financial district and subway tunnels and inflicted a power blackout in a large area, including Broadway, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, which remained dark till Tuesday night.
Three nuclear power reactors, one in New Jersey and the other two in New York, remained shut down amid worries over any possible hurricane-inflicted damage to their transmission networks as well as their cooling systems, but authorities said there were no risks to the public.
The National Hurricane Center said Sandy had weakened early Tuesday as it moved inland. And the encouraging news is that The New York Stock Exchange will reopen Wednesday for regular trading after being shut down for two days.
The superstorm has not caused severe injuries to big companies such as chemical makers BASF and DuPont. The former reported that its East Coast facilities had incurred minor damage, while the latter, many of which are not in the direct path of Sandy, has reopened its two facilities, one in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared "a major disaster" in the states of New Jersey and New York, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery from Sandy.
Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney canceled a second day of campaign events to focus on Sandy's victims.
Related:
Feature: Sandy leaves trail of destruction on U.S. East
ATLANTIC CITY, United States, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Sandy, the deadly superstorm roaring on Tuesday north along the northeastern coast of the United States, left in its wake a trail of destruction and millions of people without power.
The storm, which made landfall Monday night in New Jersey, devastated Jersey Shore, leaving streets flooded, homes abandoned and powerlines downed. All over America, more than 30 people have so far been killed by the superstorm.Full story
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