A northeaster blustered into New York and New Jersey on Wednesday with rain and wet snow, plunging homes right back into darkness and stopped commuters trains again and inflicted another round of misery on thousands of people still reeling from Super Storm Sandy’s below more than a week ago.
Under ordinary circumstances, a storm of this sort would not be a big deal but large swaths of the landscape were still an open wound with the electrical system highly fragile and many of Sandy’s victims still mucking out their homes and cars and shivering in the deepening cold.
As the northeaster closed in, thousands of people in low lying neighborhoods staggered by the super storm just over a week ago were urged to clear out. Authorities had warned that rain and 60 mph gusts in the evening and overnight could topple trees wrenched loose by Sandy and erase some of the hard worn progress made in restoring power to millions of customers.
Ahead of the storm, public works crew in New Jersey built up dunes to protect the stripped and battered coast and new evacuations were ordered in a number of communities already emptied by Sandy and new shelters were opened.
In New York City, police went to low lying neighborhoods with loudspeakers, urging residents to leave. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not issue mandatory evacuations and many people stayed behind some because they feared looting.