US north-east tries to rebuild as millions battle Sandy's effects

A huge clean-up continued across America's north-east in the wake of a direct hit by superstorm Sandy that left New York City paralysed and that devastated coastal regions of New Jersey and other states.

The historic storm killed at least 55 people, left more than 8 million people without power and had brought campaigning in America's turbulent presidential election to a temporary halt.

Effects from the direct hit on Monday night were still being felt on Wednesday morning as vehicles from the National Guard headed into the New Jersey city of Hoboken – just across the Hudson river from New York – to help evacuate up to 20,000 people still thought to be trapped by flood waters. The local sewage authority estimated that 500m gallons of water contaminated with sewage and possibly dangerous live power lines remained in the stricken city. Uniformed soldiers in trucks brought in pumps, food and medical supplies and took out people still stuck in their homes.

Hoboken officials warned residents not to go outside but instead await help. Hoboken's Facebook page turned into a forum for pleas for aid. One woman, Keri O'Connor Robinson, wrote: "Please rescue my sister. She is seven months pregnant and she lives at 517 Jackson Street, on the second floor. We have not heard from her since Monday."

Sandy is now thought to have caused tens of billions of dollars of damage with a unique combination of high winds, a massive flood surge and even a blizzard in mountainous areas. Its cone of impact stretched from North Carolina to Canada and it has been described by many as the worst ever to hit the region.

But it was New Jersey that has suffered the worst of the storm, and on Wednesday President Barack Obama was visiting the state in the company of its Republican governor Chris Christie. Sandy had pummelled its way through the state's famous New Jersey shore, swamping seaside towns, ripping away boardwalks, destroying beaches and flooding the major casino resort of Atlantic City. "The Jersey Shore we knew as kids is gone. We will rebuild it, but it will never be the same," Christie told one television interviewer.

In New York, city officials announced that a limited commuter rail system will be up and running out of New York by Wednesday afternoon. In another sign of the gradual return to normality, they also said a small amount of subway activity in the city will also return on Thursday morning as three of the city's seven subway tunnels have now been cleared of water. However, there was no specific word on when the service will fully return to normal.

At the South Ferry stop at the very tip of southern Manhattan, flood waters remained almost up to the station's ceiling. After almost 20,000 cancelled flights two New York area airports – Newark and JFK – reopened, but LaGuardia remained closed.

In many ways, it was a surreal tale of two cities in New York. In upper Manhattan and many parts of the outer boroughs, life was steadily returning to normal. Businesses, shops and restaurants were open and thronged with customers and Broadway shows re-opened around Times Square. On bridges linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, traffic was packed into huge jams as people sought to come to work by car rather than the usual public transport.

However, elsewhere the picture was very different. In lower Manhattan, where there is no power, vehicles negotiated streets without traffic lights and many residents left to stay with friends in other parts of the city. Usually packed and busy neighbourhoods like fashionable Soho and the East Village were relatively quiet and streets were lined with shuttered businesses.

That was true, too, of many areas of Long Island, where hundreds of thousands of people remained without power. If they could, they headed off to other areas that had power or had moved out ahead of the storm. Carol Goleb, of Oceanside, Long Island, took shelter with her parents in Queens, New York.

Goleb, said she was not going to take a chance that Sandy would be like last year's hurricane Irene, which largely spared the city. Unfortunately, many of her neighbours did not make the same decision. Ninety percent of Long Island residents are thought to be without power. "A lot of them thought it was going to be another Irene," Goleb said.

But as many areas struggled it was, however, a different picture on Wall Street. The New York stock exchange reopened on Wednesday morning after two days of having trading suspended. Mayor Michael Bloomberg rang the opening bell at 9.30am, right on schedule, as stock traders cheered from trading floor below. The market even rose as trading began adding 74 points to 13,182 shortly after opening. "We've got to keep rebuilding," Bloomberg told reporters as he walked through the exchange.

Meanwhile, the neighbourhood of Breezy Point in Queens was struggling with the aftermath of a devastating fire that swept through at least 111 homes as Sandy's flood waters rose through the streets. Elsewhere, in areas like Staten Island and Red Hook, which have extensive waterfronts, residents struggled to clear debris, stranded boats dumped on land and pools of standing water. In Coney Island, several feet of sand had been dumped by floodwaters several blocks inland.

Across the stricken region the Red Cross was organising teams of volunteers. The organisation asked for people aged over 16 and fit enough to carry at least 40lbs to step forward to work twelve-hour shifts helping people in need and cleaning up the mess. It also appealed for donations: an appeal that was repeated by both Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

For almost two days Sandy has derailed normal campaigning for next week's presidential election. But on Wednesday there were signs of things getting back to the normal cut and thrust of the battle for the White House. Through the storm top Obama surrogates, like former president Bill Clinton and vice president Joe Biden, have been campaigning on Obama's behalf seeking to fend off Romney's challenge.

The Romney campaign, after cancelling numerous events as the storm hit, was back to full throttle. On Wednesday, Romney was attending three full blown campaign events in the key swing state of Florida. Florida was largely spared any real impact from Sandy so many strategists believe Romney can safely campaign there without being seen as being insensitive to the storm's victims.