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Summary Residents of New York and New Jersey faced warnings to evacuate their homes as new storm arrived.
Coastal residents of New York and New Jersey faced new warnings to evacuate their homes and airlines canceled hundreds of flights as a new storm arrived Wednesday, more than a week after Superstorm Sandy left dozens dead and millions without power.Forecasters said the latest storm appeared weaker than first thought, but it still carried the threat of high winds, storm surges and even snow that could cause further damage to the already weakened infrastructure of the countrys most densely populated region. Rain and wet snow started falling in New York City around midday, with the worst expected in the afternoon.I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said. Public works crews with heavy machinery worked to build up dunes to protect the battered shoreline.More than half a million homes and businesses remained without power as temperatures hit freezing at night, and finding tens of thousands of people emergency housing in some cases, for the long term was the greatest challenge.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered police to use loudspeakers to warn vulnerable residents, many of them in low-income public housing, about evacuating.Even though its not anywhere near as strong as Sandy nor strong enough, in normal times, for us to evacuate anybody out of precaution and because of the changing physical circumstances, we are going to go to some small areas and ask those people to go to higher ground, Bloomberg said Tuesday.But many were deciding to stay, worried about their empty homes being looted. Others decided the situation couldnt get much worse.
