Sandy: Storm-hit New York declared major disaster area
[link to www.bbc.co.uk]

[snip]

The company said about 500,000 homes in Manhattan were without power.

As dawn broke, residents emerged to see the havoc wreaked by the storm.

In other developments:

Fire has destroyed about 50 homes in the New York City borough of Queens
More than 200 patients were evacuated from New York University's Tisch Hospital after power went out and a backup generator failed
A large tanker ship has been washed on to a street in Staten Island, New York
America's oldest nuclear power plant, Oyster Creek in New Jersey, was put on alert due to rising water, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said
The New York Stock Exchange will stay shut on Tuesday - the first time it has closed for two consecutive days owing to weather since 1888
A crew member from a replica of HMS Bounty has died and the captain is missing after the ship sank in mountainous seas off North Carolina on Monday
A construction crane in New York was bent double next to a skyscraper, while the facade of a four-storey building collapsed.