Wednesday 31 October 2012

Approximately 28 people disappear daily in Italy

An interior ministry commission report released on Wednesday on disappearances in Italy said that 28 people go missing daily throughout the country.

The figure is 10% higher than 2011 numbers.

Since 1974 when the missing persons databank was founded, 25,453 people have vanished without trace. Of these, 9,396 were Italians and 16,057 foreigners, 14,855 adults and 10,598 minors.

Compared to December 31, 2011, the report said that 541 more men, women and children were declared missing and have yet to be found. The total number of missing persons increased between the period of June 30, 2011 from 105,092 to 115,366 in June 30, 2012. The largest increase in disappearances was recorded over the last six months, up 4.78%.

Commission head Michele Penta said that the only data lower than recorded by last year's report were the number of unidentified bodies. On January 30, 2012 there were 831 unidentified corpses, one less than the last 2011 survey.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2012/10/31/Approximately-28-people-disappear-daily-Italy_7722239.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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3 more bodies recovered from Gayari

ISLAMABAD: Due to continued efforts by the Pakistan Army, three more bodies of soldiers were recovered from Gayari Sector of Siachen on Wednesday, bringing the total number of bodies recovered so far to 101.

According to a spokesman of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), 140 soldiers, including some civilians, were buried under an avalanche on April 7 in Gayari Sector near Skardu.

According to an ISPR press release, since then, over 300 soldiers and 50 engineering plants are employed at a search operation.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\11\01\story_1-11-2012_pg7_7

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130 missing in Rohingya boat sinking, say police

About 130 people are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees who were headed for Malaysia sank off Bangladesh, according to Bangladesh police and a Rohingya advocacy group on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar in past decades to escape persecution, often heading to neighbouring Bangladesh, and recent unrest has triggered another exodus.

Mohammad Farhad, police inspector at Teknaf on the southeast tip of Bangladesh, told AFP that one survivor from the sinking on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar reported that the boat had about 135 passengers on board.

“The boat was heading to Malaysia illegally,” Farhad said, adding that the 24-year-old survivor was being held in custody. “He does not know what happened to the others as it was dark and he was desperate to save his own life.”

Farhad said a total of six survivors were reported to have been picked up by a fishing vessel after the refugee boat left Sabrang village in Bangladesh on Saturday.

"We have spoken to families of missing passengers," he said.

There were conflicting reports about whether all those on the boat were Rohingya and also over the time of the sinking, which Bangladesh police said occurred early Sunday.

"We learned that an overcrowded boat with 133 people on board, which was leaving for Malaysia, sank," Chris Lewa, the Bangkok-based director of The Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group, said.

"Six survivors have been rescued by fishing boats. The others are missing," she told AFP.

Lewa however said her organisation had been told that the accident happened overnight Monday to Tuesday.

At least 89 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in a new wave of communal unrest sweeping Myanmar's western Rakhine state, where violence between Rohingya and Buddhists in June left dozens dead.

Since the unrest erupted, Bangladesh has been turning away boatloads of fleeing Rohingya.

The policy has been criticised by the United Nations but Bangladesh said it was already burdened with an estimated 300,000 Rohingya.

Many Rohingya refugees now try to head to Muslim-majority Malaysia for a better life. Officials said Bangladesh coastguards had yet to find any bodies after the sinking. "We could not start a search and rescue operation as the survivor could not confirm to us the position of the accident," acting administrator of Cox's Bazaar district Jasim Uddin told AFP.

"The coastguard is on alert to watch for bodies on the shore."

Myanmar's 800,000 stateless Rohingya, described by the United Nations as among the world's most persecuted minorities, are seen by the government and many Burmese as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/130+missing+in+Rohingya+boat+sinking+say+police/-/1068/1608462/-/t003e1/-/index.html

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Why dead body management in disasters matters

Dead body management is a key element of disaster response: How corpses are dealt with can have a profound impact and long-lasting effect on the mental health of survivors and communities, say experts.

“Their proper management is a core component of disaster response, together with the rescue and care of survivors and the provision of essential services,” Morris Tidball-Binz, a forensic adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, told IRIN.

Large-scale natural disasters may result in many tens of thousands of fatalities which can overwhelm local systems, and the absence of mass fatality planning can result in the mismanagement of dead bodies.

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed more than 200,000 people, lack of coordination resulted in corpses being piled up outside morgues and hospitals, while thousands were buried unidentified in mass graves.

But there are also misconceptions about the management of dead bodies. Despite popular belief, cadavers resulting from a disaster do not spread disease.

According to the latest guidelines by the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), there is no evidence that corpses result in epidemics, as victims of natural disasters generally die from trauma, drowning or fire - not infectious diseases such as cholera, typhoid, malaria or plague.

Certain infectious diseases like tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, and diarrhoeal diseases last for up to two days in a dead body. HIV may survive for up to six days. All these infections pose only a slight risk of contamination, say the guidelines.

“There is no existing evidence that dead bodies pose a significant public health risk for diseases outbreaks,” said Kouadio Koffi Isidore, a researcher on infectious diseases and public health risk management in disasters at the UN University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) in Kuala Lumpur. “Any source of disease transmission will merely be among the affected disaster survivors,” he added.

While there is a potential risk of diarrhoea from drinking water contaminated by faecal material from dead bodies, routine disinfection of drinking water is sufficient to prevent waterborne diseases, experts say.

Nevertheless, death as a result of infectious diseases like cholera, typhus or plague may represent a health risk requiring appropriate disposal of corpses, said Isidore. “Certain precautions should be taken when disposing [of] corpses immediately after death, especially in a context of infectious diseases outbreak.”

PAHO/WHO guidelines recommend disinfection with chlorine solution, rather than lime powder which is commonly used but which has a limited effect on pathogens.

Awareness and training

There is also a need to raise awareness among communities on the risk of infection from practices such as the washing and shrouding of a dead body (an obligatory duty for Muslims), as well as large gatherings during funerals.

According to the PAHO/WHO guidelines, the empowerment and training of local communities is a major part of the management of cadavers, as local residents are typically the first to arrive to help rescue people.

The psychological aspect is also extremely important. Proper and dignified management of the dead can help ease the trauma of losing loved ones. Rapid retrieval of corpses should be a priority: It aids identification and reduces the stress on survivors. Another challenge is that the sight and smell of dead bodies can often distress survivors.

According to the Asian Disaster Preparedeness Centre (ADPC), in the aftermath of a disaster, this is key in addressing the psychological trauma of losing a loved one and witnessing death on a large scale.

“Priority should be placed on helping people recreate social networks to avoid isolation, and to give people an appropriate opportunity to mourn,” International Medical Corps child psychiatrist Lynne Jones told IRIN in an earlier interview.

Religion and customs Religious and community leaders can play a major role in helping relatives to better understand and accept the recovery and management of dead bodies, ADPC guidelines say.

Local communities should be encouraged to carry out traditional ceremonies and grieving processes and observe whatever cultural and religious events they normally practice.

“If deaths are not dignified - that is, lacking proper burials or mourning ceremonies - this denies people the means to accept and come to terms with their loss,” Jones told IRIN after the Haiti earthquake.

Body disposal

Under international best practice Sphere standards, corpses should be disposed of in a manner that is dignified, culturally appropriate, and based on good public health practices.

Rapid cremations, the use of bulldozers to gather dead bodies, or the lack of a place in which to bury a corpse, can cause a lot of stress.

Sphere standards require graveyards to be at least 30 metres from groundwater sources used for drinking water, with the bottom of any grave at least 1.5m above the groundwater table; surface water from graveyards must not enter inhabited areas.

ICRC advises that the cremation of unidentified bodies should be avoided since there are no health advantages: Burials are preferred in emergencies unless there are religious or cultural reasons for another course of action.

Moreover, cremation can destroy evidence needed for future identification, requires large amounts of fuel that can result in smoke pollution, and can cause logistical problems for recovery teams having to deal with a large number of corpses.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96673/Analysis-Post-disaster-dead-body-management

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'Celebratory' gunfire at Saudi wedding brings down electricity cable killing 23 women and children

More than 20 women and children have died and dozens others were injured when traditional celebratory gunfire at a Saudi wedding brought down an electric cable causing a fire to break out.

A total of 23 people - believed to be mostly women - were electrocuted when bullets caused the high-voltage power line to fall on to a metal door at the wedding in eastern Saudi Arabia.

According to local news reports sparks from the cable caused an electrical fire in a women's only marquee at the wedding party in Ain Badr, near Abqaiq.

Strict rules of gender segregation in the conservative Islamic kingdom mean women are typically kept separate from men at weddings. Children at the wedding would have been with the female guests.

The tragedy at the party near Abqaiq - which left at least 30 more guests injured - occurred less than a month after Saudi Arabia banned the shooting of firearms at weddings, a popular tradition in tribal areas of the conservative Islamic kingdom.

Hundreds of people are understood to have been inside the courtyard of the home in Ain Badr when the blaze broke out.

Eastern Province official Abdullah Khashman said all those killed were from the same tribe.

A further 30 wedding guests were injured in the incident near Abqaiq, a centre of the Saudi energy industry.

'At the wedding, the cable fell on a metal door and the 23 people who died were all electrocuted,' Mr Khashman said.

Eastern Province governor Prince Mohammed bin Fahd ordered an investigation into the incident, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Earlier this month Saudi officials introduced a zero-tolerance policy on the culturally accepted practice of shooting firearms at weddings and other special occasions, following previous accidental deaths.

Interior Minister Prince Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz assigned police to monitor palaces, wedding halls and relaxation areas to ensure full compliance with the law, the Saudi Press Agency reported at the time.

The announcement was made following an increase in fatal and serious injuries as a result of celebratory gunfire, the agency said.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225691/Celebratory-gunfire-Saudi-wedding-brings-electricity-cable-killing-23-women-children.html#ixzz2Asx3h0Tc Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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Prosecutor confirms second burial mix-up of Smolensk victims

Military prosecutors have confirmed that the last president of Poland's Cold War-era government-in-exile was laid to rest at the wrong site following the 2010 Smolensk air disaster.

According to Ireneusz Szelag, Chief Warsaw Military Prosecutor, the mistake occurred due to incorrect identifications made in Russia following the April 2010 plane crash.

President Ryszard Kaczorowski's family did not take part in that initial identification process.

A second male victim, whose name has not been disclosed to the media owing to the family's wishes, was mistakenly entombed at Warsaw's national pantheon, the Temple of Divine Providence, in place of the late president.

“DNA tests have led to the conclusion that due to misidentification, the bodies were buried in the wrong graves,” Szelag said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“The bodies were not changed,” he claimed.

Szelag noted that the families have already been informed of the mistake.

The exhumations took place on Monday 22 October.

They follow the confirmation last month that two other crash victims, including the late Solidarity activist Anna Walentynowicz, were also buried in the wrong graves.

Seven victims of the April 2010 crash have now been exhumed, and it has been confirmed that two more exhumations are due to occur this year

President Kaczorowski was the last leader of the Polish government-in-exile in London, which remained in Britain following World War II owing to the installation of a communist regime in Poland.

Tthe presidential insignia was finally returned to Poland in December 1990 by Kaczorowski himself, following the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/116948,Prosecutor-confirms-second-burial-mixup-of-Smolensk-victims

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Two Baldia fire victims identified

Two more victims of the Baldia factory incident were identified on Tuesday. DNA tests confirmed the identities of Rafaqat Liaquat, a resident of Ittehad Town, and Shahbaz Mohammad, a resident of Baldia Town.

Both men worked in the stitching room of the ill-fated Ali Enterprises factory. Investigations have confirmed that the highest number of deaths took place in that room. The bodies, which were at the Edhi morgue, were handed over to the families of the victims. An Edhi official said that around 29 more unidentified bodies remain at the morgue.

DNA reports for around 28 unidentified victims are still pending

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/458515/baldia-fire-tribunal-report-ready-to-be-made-public-once-cm-decides/

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Bahawalpur road accident leaves 26 dead

BAHAWALPUR - A passenger van crashed into a pick-up truck at a busy highway intersection near Bahawalpur on Tuesday, leaving 26 people, including women and children, dead.

Sohail Tajik, Bahawalpur district police officer, told the media that the accident took place when a passenger van collided with an oncoming truck on highway near Bahawalpur, a private television channel reported.

Highway Patrolling Police Inspector Amir Sahazad said that the wagon, coming from Mubarikpur, was moving on the Bahawalpur bypass when it slammed into the truck, which was going on the bypass, as both did not slow down on the turn.

He said that the wagon driver died on the spot and the truck driver and two more people on the truck got critically injured. The Rescue 1122 rescuers cut the truck body to pull the men out of the truck and shifted them to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital in Bahawalpur.

An eyewitness said that both the drivers were driving so fast that they could not stop their vehicles.

The local Rescue 1122 chief Dr Asif Rahim Channer said: “We received a call at 11:40 am about the accident by police and we send the six ambulances to the sight of the accident. The rescuers found 20 dead bodies at the spot, while 7 critically injured and 3 people with minor injuries who were shifted to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital. One injured woman died on her to the hospital.”

He told the media that the rescue operation continued for 90 minutes in which six ambulances and 30 rescuers took part.

The doctor, in charge of the Emergency Unit of Bahawal Victoria Hospital, said that doctors were doing their best to save the life of the injured people.

The Bahawalpur DPO said that 14 bodies were identified and the process was underway to hand over the bodies to their relatives.

He also confirmed that at least seven women and four children were among the dead.

Pakistan has a high rate of fatal traffic accidents, most of which are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained vehicles and bad road conditions.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/31-Oct-2012/bahawalpur-road-accident-leaves-26-dead

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Hurricane Sandy kills at least 18 in New York

At least 18 New Yorkers were killed during superstorm Sandy -- including an off-duty cop who drowned in his basement while rescuing his family.

And the toll could still rise: two little boys, ages 2 and 4, were listed as missing nearly 24 hours after they got separated from their mother after her car was submerged on Father Capodanno Blvd. on Staten Island.

Across the city, fallen trees, downed power lines and flooded streets were a deadly combination for people in and out of the evacuation zone.

-- The off-duty officer, whose name was not released, got his father, girlfriend and baby to the attic of their Dorty Ave. home on the southern end of Staten Island.

He then went downstairs and never returned. Fellow officers found him in the basement about 5 a.m. Tuesday.

"Somehow he got trapped in his basement and he drowned in the basement,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

The name of the cop, who was assigned to the 1st Precinct in Lower Manhattan, was not immediately released.

-- In Richmond Hill, Queens, a 23-year-old woman taking cellphone photos of a power line that had caught fire suffered a horrific death after she stepped on a live wire on the sidewalk and fell to the ground, screaming.

"She was right on top of the live cables and they were just frying her," said neighbor Renny Bhagretta, 44, who watched from his window on 134th St. Monday night. "She couldn't move. She didn't have a chance."

Police, firefighters and Con Edison workers couldn’t get near the victim for almost two hours because cables strewn all over the road were still sparking.

"Her body was burning," said neighbor Asha Bhagaretti, 43. "It was just horrifying."

-- In Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, a teacher and a grad student were crushed by giant trees that came crashing down on the street of stately Victorian homes at the height of the storm on Monday night.

The bodies of Jessie Streich-Kest, 25, and longtime pal Jacob Vogelman, 24, were discovered the next morning on Ditmas Ave. and E. 19th St.

Streich-Kest had called her parents -- her father is labor activist Jon Kest -- just before going out to walk her beloved pitbull-mix Max, who was rescued from a shelter a year ago.

"Her mom had said, 'Don't go out,'" said family friend Susannah Laskaris.

But Streich-Kest, who taught at the Bushwick School for Social Justice, wouldn't skimp on Max's care. "She loved the dog greatly," said a neighbor.

"She was actually a very cautious person. All I can think is the winds seemed like they were dying down."

Vogelman heart-broken mother said the Brooklyn College theater design student went to Streich-Kest’s house to keep her company during the storm.

"He was an incredible son," said Marcia Sikowitz, 60, who lived with her son in Park Slope. "He had an old soul and he was always helping people."

-- At 92 Laight Street in Tribeca, a middle-aged parking garage worker was killed when he got trapped in the basement by flash flooding.

Good Samaritan Kevin Gouche, 53, said he and a neighbor saw water pouring into the garage and two attendants stuck inside.

"The water was raging like a river. We told them to get out. I couldn't understand why they were still messing around down there,” Gouche said.

One of the men apparently escaped while the second stayed behind. Thirty minutes later, the water in the garage had gone from knee-level to ceiling height.

Cops told Gouche the victim was found in a vehicle when rescuers were able to get to him about 9:30 am Tuesday.

-- The body of a 55-year-old man was found in an empty retail space at 90 Broad St. in lower Manhattan on Tuesday morning. Police said it appears he was carried into the building by a four-foot-deep river of water that smashed the glass front of the building.

-- A 13-year-old girl was found dead under a pile of debris in the Tottenville section of Staten Island where four beachfront homes were washed away. Her mother, a church worker, was critically injured and her father, a plumber, was missing, neighbors said.

“They wanted to stay. We tried to convince them to leave. They said they didn’t think it would be that bad,” said John Alleva, 47, who live near the family on Yetman Ave.

-- In Flushing, Queens, a tree crashed into a house at 47-36 166th St. and killed St. John’s University grad student Anthony Laino.

“He was in his bedroom on his couch,” said Heather Valente, mother of Laino’s fiancee. “How do you deal with such a cataclysmic happening?...How do you explain something this horrible? You can’t.”

An off-duty cop and an off-duty firefighter ran into the house but couldn’t save Laino, whose body was discovered by one of his two older brothers.

“They had been begging the city to take down this tree,” neighbor Joann Evangelista said. “It was a sick tree.”

-- A 75-year-old Manhattan woman died after her oxygen machine lost power. Herminia St. John’s grandson ran to nearby Bellevue Hospital for a manually operated oxygen tank -- and paramedics rushed back to the apartment at 444 Second Ave. But St. John had already gone into cardiac arrest and died.

-- Cops asked to check on a family on Fox Beach Ave. on Staten Island discovered a 51-year-old man and his 20-year-old son in the basement of their badly damaged home, buried under debris.

-- Police discovered a 70-year-old woman floating in water inside a home at 164-25 98th St. in Queens about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning after her family couldn’t reach her.

-- Two deaths were reported on Long Island. John Miller, 39, a father of two was killed while standing near his car outside his Lloyd Harbor home, waiting to evacuate, police said. Safar Shafinoori, 84, of Roslyn was killed by a falling tree. A Garden City man blew off his hand when he lit a firework that he mistook for a candle.

-- At least three people were killed in northern New Jersey: a man and a woman whose pickup truck was hit by a tree in Mendham Township and a 77-year-old man whose home was struck by a tree.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/sandy-kills-18-new-yorkers-article-1.1194971#ixzz2AsU7aPT5

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Lagos Boat Mishap: Missing Bodies Recovered

Hours of thorough search of the Imude community lagoon, Otto-Awori Local Council Development Area, LCDA, Lagos, has paid off as the remaining three bodies out of the 10 that drowned in a boat mishap on Sunday, were finally recovered yesterday by the community search and recovery team.

According to reports, one of the three missing bodies was recovered from the lagoon by the team at about 7:00 p.m. on Monday night while the two other bodies were recovered from the lagoon on Tuesday.

Five bodies had been recovered immediately after the incident occurred last Sunday. And on Monday, two other bodies were recovered.

Baale of Imude community, Oto-Awori Local Council Development Area, (LCDA) Chief Ajayi Ashade while confirming the recovery said that the ten bodies have been recovered from the lagoon, adding “the last two were recovered from the lagoon at the early hours of today (yesterday).”

Speaking on the recovery, the leader of the community search and recovery team, Apostle Kehinde Akerele said that they commenced their exercise as early as 6:00 a.m., which has been their practice since the ugly incident occurred in the community.

Akerele emphasized that the search and recovery of the three remaining bodies was done by his team late on Monday and at the early hours of Tuesday. He however commended the Commissioner for Rural Development, Mr. Cornelius Ojelabi for releasing the fund to secure the services of a speed boat which he said made the search easier.

Baale of Imude community after the recovery of the bodies said yesterday that the community would commence rituals to cleanse the community and to appeal to the gods of the land in order not to experience such an incident again.

“The rituals will take place at the river bank. Within the nine days of the rites, there will not be restriction of movement within the community,” Ashade said.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.informationnigeria.org/2012/10/lagos-boat-mishap-missing-bodies-recovered.html

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Hurricane Sandy knocks down tree, turns up skeleton

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — In addition to being one of the more devastating storms ever to hit the east coast, Hurricane Sandy can now be counted as a gravedigger.

The storm knocked a tree down in New Haven, and inside was a human skeleton, according to TV station WTNH.

"I noticed what I thought was a rock at first, I kind of poked it and a piece came off in my hand, and I noticed it was bone fragments," said Katie Carbo, according to WTNH. "So I took a stick and knocked some of the dirt away and noticed it was an entire skull and body and vertebrae, ribs."

Carbo found human remains under that tree.

The area used to be a cemetery.

All of the headstones were moved, but the bodies were not.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/hurricane_sandy_knocks_down_tr.html

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Hurricane Sandy forces coffins of the dead to rise up from the ground

After having leveled huge swathes of New York City and the East Coast as it rampaged through the region on Monday night, superstorm Sandy inflicted a final indignity as it caused coffins to rise from their graves.

At one cemetery in Crisfield, Maryland, two caskets, one silver and the other bronze, rose up from the ground as the sheer force of the water unleashed by Sandy swelled the ground.

Powerful enough to dislodge the cement slabs that covered the graves, the sad sight indicated the indiscriminate bombardment that mother nature brought to reign over the U.S. Atlantic coastline.

The most devastating storm in decades to hit the country's most densely populated region upended man and nature as it rolled back the clock on 21st-century lives, cutting off modern communication and leaving millions without power as thousands who fled their water-damaged homes wondered when, and if, life would return to normal.

Superstorm Sandy killed at least 50 people, many hit by falling trees, and still wasn't finished. It inched inland across Pennsylvania, ready to bank toward western New York to dump more of its water and likely cause more havoc last night.

Behind it: a dazed, inundated New York City, a waterlogged Atlantic Coast and a moonscape of disarray and debris - from unmoored shore-town boardwalks to submerged mass-transit systems to delicate presidential politics.

'Nature,' said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, assessing the damage to his city, 'is an awful lot more powerful than we are.'

More than 8.2million households were without power in 17 states as far west as Michigan.

Nearly two million of those were in New York, where large swaths of lower Manhattan lost electricity and entire streets ended up underwater - as did seven subway tunnels between Manhattan and Brooklyn at one point.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225611/Hurricane-Sandy-2012-Superstorm-forces-coffins-dead-rise-ground.html#ixzz2AsOMmIk9 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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