East Coast looks to rebuild after Sandy leaves death, destruction in wake, millions still without power

People in the coastal corridor battered by superstorm Sandy took the first cautious steps to reclaim routines upended by the disaster, even as rescuers combed neighborhoods strewn with debris and scarred by floods and fire.

But while New York City buses returned to darkened streets eerily free of traffic and the New York Stock Exchange prepared to reopen its storied trading floor Wednesday, it became clear that restoring the region to its ordinarily frenetic pace could take days -- and that rebuilding the hardest-hit communities and the transportation networks that link them together could take considerably longer.

"We will get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times -- by standing together, shoulder to shoulder, ready to help a neighbor, comfort a stranger and get the city we love back on its feet," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

By late Tuesday, the winds and flooding inflicted by the fast-weakening Sandy had subsided, leaving at least 55 people dead along the Atlantic Coast and splintering beachfront homes and boardwalks from the mid-Atlantic states to southern New England.

The storm later moved across Pennsylvania on a predicted path toward New York State and Canada.

At the height of the disaster, more than 8.2 million lost electricity -- some as far away as Michigan. Nearly a quarter of those without power were in New York, where lower Manhattan's usually bright lights remained dark for a second night.

But, amid the despair, talk of recovery was already beginning.

"It's heartbreaking after being here 37 years," Barry Prezioso of Point Pleasant, N.J., said as he returned to his house in the beachfront community to survey the damage. "You see your home demolished like this, it's tough. But nobody got hurt and the upstairs is still livable, so we can still live upstairs and clean this out. I'm sure there's people that had worse. I feel kind of lucky."

Much of the initial recovery efforts focused on New York City, the region's economic heart. Bloomberg said it could take four or five days before the subway, which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history, is running again. All 10 of the tunnels that carry commuters under the East River were flooded. But high water prevented inspectors from immediately assessing damage to key equipment, raising the possibility that the nation's largest city could endure an extended shutdown of the system that 5 million people count on to get to work and school each day. The chairman of the state agency that runs the subway, Joseph Lhota, said service might have to resume piecemeal, and experts said the cost of the repairs could be staggering.

Power company Consolidated Edison said it would be four days before the last of the 337,000 customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn who lost power have electricity again and it could take a week to restore outages in the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Westchester County. Floodwater led to explosions that disabled a power substation Monday night, contributing to the outages.

Surveying the widespread damage, it was clear much of the recovery and rebuilding will take far longer.

When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stopped in Belmar, N.J., during a tour of the devastation, one woman wept openly and 42-year-old Walter Patrickis told him, "Governor, I lost everything."

Christie, who called the shore damage "unthinkable," said a full recovery would take months, at least, and it would likely be a week or more before power is restored to everyone who lost it.

"Now we've got a big task ahead of us that we have to do together. This is the kind of thing New Jerseyans are built for," he said. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the state Wednesday to inspect the storm damage.

By sundown Tuesday, however, announcements from officials and scenes on the streets signaled that New York and nearby towns were edging toward a semblance of routine.

First came the reopening of highways in Connecticut and bridges across the Hudson and East rivers, although the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan, and the Holland Tunnel, between New York and New Jersey, remained closed.

A limited number of the white and blue buses that crisscross New York's grid returned Tuesday evening to Broadway and other thoroughfares on a reduced schedule -- but free of charge. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he hoped there would be full service by Wednesday. Still, school was canceled for a third straight day Wednesday in the city, where many students rely on buses and subways to reach classrooms.

In one bit of good news, officials announced that John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Newark International Airport in New Jersey would reopen at 7 a.m. Wednesday with limited service. New York's LaGuardia Airport remains closed.

The New York Stock Exchange was again silent Tuesday -- the first weather-related, two-day closure since the 19th century -- but trading was scheduled to resume Wednesday morning with Bloomberg ringing the opening bell.

Amtrak also laid out plans to resume some runs in the Northeast on Wednesday, with modified service between Newark, N.J., and points south. That includes restoring Virginia service to Lynchburg, Richmond and Newport News, Keystone trains in Pennsylvania, and Downeaster service between Boston and Portland, Maine.

But flooding continues to prevent service to and from New York's Penn Station. Amtrak said the amount of water in train tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers is unprecedented. There will be no Northeast Regional service between New York and Boston and no Acela Express service for the entire length of the Northeast Corridor. No date has been set for when it might resume.

But even with the return of some transportation and plans to reopen schools and businesses, the damage and pain inflicted by Sandy continued to unfold, confirming the challenge posed by rebuilding.

In New Jersey, amusement rides that once crowned a pier in Seaside Heights were dumped into the ocean, some homes were smashed, and others were partially buried in sand.

Farther north in Hoboken, across the Hudson from Manhattan, New Jersey National Guard troops arrived Tuesday night with high-wheeled vehicles to reach thousands of flood victims stuck in their homes. They arrived to find a town with live wires dangling in the floodwaters that Mayor Dawn Zimmer said were rapidly mixing with sewage. At nightfall, the city turned almost completely dark.

About 2.1 million homes and businesses remained without power across the state late Tuesday. When Tropical Storm Irene struck last year, it took more than a week to restore power everywhere. The state's largest utility, PSE&G, said it was trying to dry out substations it had to shut down.

Outages in the state's two largest cities, Newark and Jersey City, left traffic signals dark, resulting in numerous fender-benders at intersections where police were not directing traffic. And in one Jersey City supermarket, there were long lines to get bread and a spot at an outlet to charge cellphones.

Trees and power lines were down in every corner of the state. Schools and state government offices were closed for a second day, and many called off classes for Wednesday, too. The governor said the PATH trains connecting northern New Jersey with Manhattan would be out of service for at least seven to 10 days because of flooding. All the New Jersey Transit rail lines were damaged, he said, and it was not clear when the rail lines would be able to open.

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."

The storm caused irreparable damage to homes in East Haven, Milford and other shore towns. Still, many were grateful the storm did not deliver a bigger blow, considering the havoc wrought in New York City and New Jersey.

"I feel like we are blessed," said Bertha Weismann, whose garage was flooded in Bridgeport. "It could have been worse."

And in New York, residents of the flooded beachfront neighborhood of Breezy Point in 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, 57, acknowledged the mistake. 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."

There were still only hints of the economic impact of the storm.

Forecasting firm IHS Global Insight predicted it will end up causing about $20 billion in damage and $10 billion to $30 billion in lost business. Another firm, AIR Worldwide, estimated losses up to $15 billion -- big numbers probably offset by reconstruction and repairs that will contribute to longer-term growth.

"The biggest problem is not the first few days but the coming months," said Alan Rubin, an expert in natural disaster recovery.

Some of those who lost homes and businesses to Sandy were promising to return and rebuild, but many sounded chastened by their encounter with nature's fury. They included Tom Shalvey of Warwick, R.I., whose 500-square-foot cottage on the beach in South Kingstown was washed away by raging surf, leaving a utility pipe as the only marker of where it once sat.

"We love the beach. We had many great times here," Shalvey said. "We will be back. But it will not be on the front row."

Ruling party leads Ukraine vote

Ukraine's ruling party holds a solid, early lead in parliamentary election results posted Monday in a contest seen as a test for democracy in the former Soviet republic.

President Viktor Yanukovich's Party of Regions took 35.4% of the vote in a field of five parties expected to hold seats in parliament, according to the Central Electoral Commission. The United Opposition coalition, organized by jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her allies, followed with 21.7%.

The election website says about 41% of the ballots have been counted.

The Communist Party held third with 15%.

Two parties that coordinated with United Opposition had strong showings as well. Running fourth, with 12.9%, was the Udar ("Punch") party of heavyweight boxing champ Vitali Klitchko. And the Svoboda ("Freedom") party was fifth with 8.1%, according to the commission.

Ukraine has become increasingly isolated under Yanukovich, with Western observers accusing his ruling party of corruption, political persecution and a drift towards authoritarianism. Those concerns are embodied in the treatment of Tymoshenko, who is serving a seven-year sentence for abuse of power after what the United States and European Union have both called a politically motivated show trial.

Tymoshenko pleaded with Ukrainians to oppose what she called the country's "mafia regime" in a video her lawyer smuggled out of her lockup in September.

"This is really a moment of truth for Ukraine, and it's really a point where the international community has to name these events by their true names," her daughter, Evgenia Tymoshenko, told CNN before the vote.

No turnout figures were immediately available, but voting appeared light in a country where many have become disillusioned with politics.

Even from prison, Tymoshenko persuaded the country's usually divided opposition to unite for the vote. Eight parties joined forces to produce the United Opposition coalition, while Udar and Svoboda agreed to strategically withdraw candidates to avoid splitting the anti-Yanukovich vote.

While the opposition was expected to run strongly in Kiev, the Party of Regions has a strong base in eastern Ukraine.

Yurii Miroshnychenko, Yanukovich's official representative in parliament, said closed-circuit television cameras were installed in every polling station and thousands of Ukrainian and international observers were present to watch the balloting. But international observers have expressed concern about the use of government resources by Party of Regions candidates, the almost-complete absence of independent media coverage, and the intimidation of opposition activists. And United Opposition was already raising alarms Sunday afternoon about fraud at the polls.

"The campaign was very tough, extremely tough. Intimidation, they purchased the voters, they intimidated the members of the election commissions," Yatsenyuk said. "So they did their utmost with a an iron fist to do something to win the elections, but look at the results of the exit polls. They didn't succeed."

World Series MVP Sandoval makes clutch play with glove to limit damage from Cabrera’s HR

World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval used his feet, glove and arm — not his bat — to make a clutch play that helped the San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings Sunday night to finish off a sweep.

The third baseman charged Quintin Berry’s bunt — barely avoided colliding with pitcher Matt Cain — with one man on base and made an off-balance throw to get the speedy Berry out at first for the second out of the third inning.

 “I called it late,” Sandoval said. “But (Cain) got out of the way so quickly, so we made the play easy.”

Two pitches later, Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run, go-ahead homer that would’ve been a three-run shot that could’ve decided the game without an extra inning if Sandoval hadn’t thrown Berry out.

“It ended up being real big,” said Cain, who had to hurdle over part of Sandoval to stay out of his way. “It was huge for Pablo to make an unbelievable play like that. It’s one of the reasons we call him ‘Kung Fu Panda.’”

PRODUCTIVE PEN: Jeremy Affeldt was first. Then Santiago Casilla came on and got the ball to Sergio Romo, who closed it out for San Francisco.

When Matt Cain was unable to finish off the Detroit Tigers, his buddies in the bullpen took over.

Affeldt, Casilla and Romo combined for three scoreless innings in relief of Cain, striking out seven in all to help the Giants seal their sweep of the Tigers.

Romo struck out the side in the 10th inning, including Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera for the final out, for his fourth save of the postseason.

“He’s a guy you want out there,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s not afraid and commands the ball so well. Really, I know this is a play on words, he saved us all year.”

Romo became the first pitcher to save at least three games in the World Series since John Wetteland did it for the New York Yankees in 1996.

Casilla hit Omar Infante, breaking his left hand, in the ninth, but bounced back by getting Gerald Laird to hit into a fielder’s choice and got the win.

Affeldt gave up a leadoff walk in the eighth inning, then struck out the middle of Detroit’s lineup — Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young — while pitching 1 2-3 innings.

While the bullpen gets credit for its performance, Affeldt dished some back to Cain.

“What an amazing job keeping us in the game seven innings so we didn’t need to use our ‘pen until late in the game,” Affeldt said.

RETURN TRIP: Manager Bruce Bochy guided San Francisco to the 2010 championship and to another title on Sunday night.

But long before that, he was a backup catcher for the San Diego Padres in the 1984 World Series.

“That was so long ago, but it is amazing how things come back around,” Bochy said.

In his only at-bat, he got a pinch-hit single in the ninth inning of Game 5 at Tiger Stadium, the day Detroit closed out the championship.

“I have great memories of being in the World Series, not real good ones on how it came out,” he said.

“But what a thrill for any player, and of course myself, when you get to the World Series for the first time. We had split in San Diego, then came here and they beat us here,” he said. “But great time for me, I got one at-bat, and I was thrilled that Dick Williams put me in there.”

HALL OF FAME PRAISE: Al Kaline played in an era of greats, from Ted Williams to Mickey Mantle to Reggie Jackson.

Yet the former Detroit standout says the top guy he watched was someone he never faced in a regular-season game.

Kaline, now 77 and a special assistant for the Tigers, was at AT&T Park in San Francisco earlier in the World Series. Willie Mays, at 81, took part in the first-ball ceremony honoring Giants stars before Game 1.

“Willie Mays was the best player I ever saw,” Kaline said. “I was lucky to see a lot of them. But Willie was something special.”

“To me, he was the poster boy for baseball. The way he played, his enthusiasm and his ability,” Kaline said of his fellow Hall of Famer.

The Tigers and Giants had never met in postseason play before this year, and there was no interleague play in their day. With Detroit working out in Florida and the Giants in Arizona, they didn’t see each other in spring training.

Mays made his first All-Star team in 1954 and Kaline was first picked a year later. They were then chosen in every summer showcase through 1967.

“That’s where I got to see him, and he was fun to watch. He could really play,” Kaline said.

Kaline, however, said he never got to spend much time with Mays.

“I see him at the Hall of Fame and like to stop by, shake his hand and just be who I am,” he said. “I’m not kidding myself. I was a good player. But he was great. There aren’t too many who were at his level.”

Hurricane Sandy turns in march toward East Coast

A superstorm that threatened 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation started turning Monday, forecasters said.

Hurricane Sandy was expected to hook inland during the day, colliding with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.

The National Hurricane Center said early Monday that the Category 1 hurricane has top sustained winds of 75 mph, with higher gusts. It is moving toward the north at 14 mph after moving northeast Sunday night. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 175 miles from the storm's center. Gale force winds were reported over coastal North Carolina, southeastern Virginia, the Delmarva Peninsula and coastal New Jersey.

Sandy is about 425 miles southeast of New York City and the center of the storm is expected to be near the mid-Atlantic coast on Monday night.

From Washington to Boston, big cities and small towns were buttoned up against the onslaught of Sandy, with forecasters warning that the New York area could get the worst of it — an 11-foot wall of water.

"The time for preparing and talking is about over," Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate said Sunday as Hurricane Sandy made its way up the Atlantic on a collision course with two other weather systems that could turn it into one of the most fearsome storms on record in the U.S. "People need to be acting now."

Forecasters said the hurricane could blow ashore Monday night or early Tuesday along the New Jersey coast, then cut across into Pennsylvania and travel up through New York State on Wednesday.

Airlines canceled more than 7,200 flights and Amtrak began suspending train service across the Northeast. New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore moved to shut down their subways, buses and trains and said schools would be closed on Monday. Boston also called off school. And all non-essential government offices closed in the nation's capital.

The New York Stock Exchange said it will be shut down Monday, including electronic trading. Nasdaq is shutting the Nasdaq Stock Market and other U.S. exchanges and markets it owns, although its exchanges outside the U.S. will operate as scheduled.

As rain from the leading edges of the monster hurricane began to fall over the Northeast, hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland to Connecticut were ordered to evacuate low-lying coastal areas, including 375,000 in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York City, 50,000 in Delaware and 30,000 in Atlantic City, N.J., where the city's 12 casinos were forced to shut down for only the fourth time ever.

"We were told to get the heck out. I was going to stay, but it's better to be safe than sorry," said Hugh Phillips, who was one of the first in line when a Red Cross shelter in Lewes, Del., opened at noon.

"I think this one's going to do us in," said Mark Palazzolo, who boarded up his bait-and-tackle shop in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., with the same wood he used in past storms, crossing out the names of Hurricanes Isaac and Irene and spray-painting "Sandy" next to them. "I got a call from a friend of mine from Florida last night who said, 'Mark, get out! If it's not the storm, it'll be the aftermath. People are going to be fighting in the streets over gasoline and food.'"

However, CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports, some, like Ocean City, Md., surfer Brian Dean, said they have decided to stay.

"We've got everything pretty well situated, bunkered down, generators, [we'll] hang out, ride it out. We rode out Irene last year, it wasn't that bad," he said.

Authorities warned that the nation's biggest city could get hit with a surge of seawater that could swamp parts of lower Manhattan, flood subway tunnels and cripple the network of electrical and communications lines that are vital to the nation's financial center.

Sandy was blamed for 65 deaths in the Caribbean before it began traveling northward, parallel to the Eastern Seaboard.

Forecasters said the combination of it with the storm from the west and the cold air from the Arctic could bring close to a foot of rain in places, a potentially lethal storm surge of 4 to 11 feet across much of the region, and punishing winds that could cause widespread power outages that last for days. The storm could also dump up to 2 feet of snow in Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia.

Louis Uccellini, environmental prediction chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press that given Sandy's east-to-west track into New Jersey, the worst of the storm surge could be just to the north, in New York City, on Long Island and in northern New Jersey.

Forecasters said that because of giant waves and high tides made worse by a full moon, the metropolitan area of about 20 million people could get hit with an 11-foot wall of water. Reid reports from Ocean City that sea levels could rise 8 feet above normal - enough to flood much of the city.

"This is the worst-case scenario," Uccellini said.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned: "If you don't evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you. This is a serious and dangerous storm."

New Jersey's famously blunt Gov. Chris Christie was less polite: "Don't be stupid. Get out."

New York called off school Monday for the city's 1.1 million students and shut down all train, bus and subway service Sunday night. More than 5 million riders a day depend on the transit system.

Officials also postponed Monday's reopening of the Statue of Liberty, which had been closed for a year for $30 million in renovations. The United Nations said it would close Monday and canceled all meetings at its headquarters.

In Washington, President Obama promised the government would "respond big and respond fast" after the storm hits.

"My message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there, and we will cut through red tape. We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules," he said.