Power Still Out in New York City

November 11, 2012

Volunteers knock on doors to provide food and supplies to residents who continue to live without power

From VOA Learning English, this is the TECHNOLOGY REPORT in Special English.

Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity last week in the northeastern United States. They lost power when Superstorm Sandy hit the area in late October. Last week, another storm brought more high winds and dropped snow on the already troubled New York City area.

Officials are blaming Sandy for more than one hundred deaths and more than fifty billion dollars in property damage. The storm left about eight million people without power for days. This included nearly five million people in New York State and New Jersey.

Sandy flooded parts of New York City’s subway system and affected other transportation. It delayed movement of trucks carrying fuel to gasoline stations, resulting in long lines at gas pumps.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke about the problems at a press conference last week.

“Many of the gas stations, especially in Nassau, there’s gasoline in the tank in the ground but there’s no power to run the pump. And that’s been the problem.”

Governor Cuomo said Superstorm Sandy has exposed problems with New York’s infrastructure.

“These systems are the circulatory systems of the region. And you stop the circulatory system, and you paralyze the region.”