Photo gallery: Tens of thousands lose housing in US superstorm
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Tens of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by superstorm Sandy faced a new crisis in New York on Sunday as temperatures plunged, raising the specter of people freezing to death. -- PHOTO: AP
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A homemade sign by Ken Court, (left), of Port Jefferson, New York , reads "One Day at a Time" as he enters his 82 year-old mother's house in Breezy Point, a neighbourhood that was hard hit, flooded by storm surge and is still without power in the wake of Superstorm Sandy on Sunday, Nov 4, 2012, in the Queens borough of New York. Court cleaned out and discarded all of the furniture on the first floor, which is piled in front of the house. -- PHOTO: AP
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A statue of a firefighter remains in front of a burnt house on Nov 4, 2012, in the Rockaway neighbourhood of the Queens borough of New York City. With the death toll currently over 100 and millions of homes and businesses without power, the US east coast is attempting to recover from the effects of floods, fires and power outages brought on by Superstorm Sandy. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A rescue centre is being organised by volunteers in the gymnasium next to St Gertrude's Church as New York recovers from Hurricane Sandy on Nov 4, 2012 in Far Rockaway, New York. Veterans of the campaign to bring Wall Street to a standstill are now in an army of volunteers helping the tens of thousands in a crippled district of New York one week after superstorm Sandy struck. Hundreds of volunteers have poured into Far Rockaway, a poor working class district on the fringes of New York City, which endured an horrific storm last Monday. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Runner Jonathan who would have run the ING New York City Marathon, spend the afternoon volunteering by unloading and organising emergency supplies near Midland Beach as New York recovers from Hurricane Sandy on Nov 4, 2012, in Staten Island, New York. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A man wipes his eyes as he, Kathleen Beissel and her daughter Meaghan, 7, attend Sunday mass at the St Thomas More Catholic church in Breezy Point, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy on Sunday, Nov 4, 2012, in New York. With overnight temperatures sinking into the 30s and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses still without electricity six days after Sandy howled through, people piled on layers of clothes, and New York City officials handed out blankets and urged victims to go to overnight shelters or daytime warming centres. -- PHOTO: AP
Tens of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by superstorm Sandy faced a new crisis in New York on Sunday as temperatures plunged, raising the specter of people freezing to death. -- PHOTO: AP
A homemade sign by Ken Court, (left), of Port Jefferson, New York , reads "One Day at a Time" as he enters his 82 year-old mother's house in Breezy Point, a neighbourhood that was hard hit, flooded by storm surge and is still without power in the wake of Superstorm Sandy on Sunday, Nov 4, 2012, in the Queens borough of New York. Court cleaned out and discarded all of the furniture on the first floor, which is piled in front of the house. -- PHOTO: AP
A statue of a firefighter remains in front of a burnt house on Nov 4, 2012, in the Rockaway neighbourhood of the Queens borough of New York City. With the death toll currently over 100 and millions of homes and businesses without power, the US east coast is attempting to recover from the effects of floods, fires and power outages brought on by Superstorm Sandy. -- PHOTO: AFP
A rescue centre is being organised by volunteers in the gymnasium next to St Gertrude's Church as New York recovers from Hurricane Sandy on Nov 4, 2012 in Far Rockaway, New York. Veterans of the campaign to bring Wall Street to a standstill are now in an army of volunteers helping the tens of thousands in a crippled district of New York one week after superstorm Sandy struck. Hundreds of volunteers have poured into Far Rockaway, a poor working class district on the fringes of New York City, which endured an horrific storm last Monday. -- PHOTO: AFP
Runner Jonathan who would have run the ING New York City Marathon, spend the afternoon volunteering by unloading and organising emergency supplies near Midland Beach as New York recovers from Hurricane Sandy on Nov 4, 2012, in Staten Island, New York. -- PHOTO: AFP
A man wipes his eyes as he, Kathleen Beissel and her daughter Meaghan, 7, attend Sunday mass at the St Thomas More Catholic church in Breezy Point, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy on Sunday, Nov 4, 2012, in New York. With overnight temperatures sinking into the 30s and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses still without electricity six days after Sandy howled through, people piled on layers of clothes, and New York City officials handed out blankets and urged victims to go to overnight shelters or daytime warming centres. -- PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by superstorm Sandy faced a new crisis in New York on Sunday as temperatures plunged, raising the specter of people freezing to death.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 homes in the city alone had been left unusable by the October 29 storm as the cold intensifies.
Sandy pummeled 15 states with fierce winds and a huge tidal surge that killed at least 109 people in the United States and Canada and a damage bill running to tens of billions of dollars.
Almost two million homes are still without power and a new storm predicted to hit on Wednesday is bringing more heavy rain and winds.
