Nine days after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast, the governors of New York and New Jersey are warning residents that the recovery will be long—especially in coastal areas where thousands of homes were destroyed. Power hasn’t yet returned to certain areas of the states, and New Yorkers are dealing with gasoline rationing for the first time in decades. At least 120 people in the U.S. were killed by the storm, which has caused an estimated $50 billion in damages and economic loss. “This is our Katrina,” said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
It’s a tale of two cities. Con Edison, which supplies power to the city and Westchester County, said on Saturday that 98 percent of homes that lost power during Hurricane Sandy and the more recent nor'easter have their lights back on. But that means about 20,000 customers are still waiting. The 98 percent figure also does not include the 35,000 in Staten Island, Brooklyn, or Queens whose homes are damaged to the point of not being able to accept power right now. On Long Island, LIPA is struggling to restore power for about 160,000 of their customers, still without power 10 days after Sandy.
As New York deals with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, life has returned to normal for many of her victims—but not those victims in the poorest parts of the city. Communities along the southern shores of Brooklyn and Queens still don’t have power or heat and are desperate for supplies. Local residents are picking up the slack, organizing volunteers and collecting donations for those in need. But compounding the problem is that so many people don’t even know what government agencies are supposed to be helping—mainly because there were so few people on the ground.
It’s finally over. Florida declared President Obama has won the state’s 29 electoral votes, giving the president 332 electoral votes to Mitt Romney’s 206. In the end, Obama captured 50 percent of the state, with Romney taking 49.3 percent—giving Obama a 74,000-vote lead.
Florida will take a closer look at how it holds elections, especially in counties where people had to wait for more than four hours to cast a ballot, Gov. Rick Scott announced. The Sunshine State saw 8.5 million residents cast a ballot this year, up from 8.3 million in 2008. The increase came despite the fact that state officials cut early voting down from two weeks to eight days. Earlier this year, Scott stirred up controversy when he directed local elections boards to remove people they deemed ineligible from the voting rolls.