Damaged: A building that had its facade ripped off by Hurricane Sandy - beds and radiators can be seen in the block

Wrecked: A construction site sinks into a large hole on South Street Seaport - the clean-up operation is expected to cost over £12 billion

City of water: A flooded street in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn after the city awakens to the affects of Hurricane Sandy. It hit the mainland at 6.30pm local time last night having laid waste to large parts of the coast throughout the day



Deluge: Water floods over the barriers in New York. The city's transit system, schools, the stock exchange and Broadway were also shut after a 13ft wall of water caused by the storm surge and high tides brought severe flooding to subways and road tunnels

Road blocked: Pieces of lumber displaced from a yard by rising flood waters are seen beneath Manhattan Bridge in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

Transformation: A subway station now resembles a river in one of the US's largest cities

Power storm: The full force of the storm is evident by the way a metal shutter has been ripped from the wall

Submerged: The lobby of Verizon's Corporate headquarters in Manhattan. The headquarter houses executive offices as well as some of the company's key telecom equipment that supports services to New York's financial district Operation clean-up: Debris litters a flooded street in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn after the city awakens to the affects of Hurricane Sandy

Mission: A man clears leaves from a sewer drain in lower Manhattan to help the flooding ease

The storm caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of New York's extensive subway system, according to Joseph Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.



The city's transit system suffered unprecedented damage, from the underground subway tunnels to commuter rails to bus garages, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Tuesday.



'We have no idea how long it's going to take,' spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said.



Today the New York governor told citizens facing power outages that it could last for several days: 'Eat the most perishable items first: leftovers, meat, poultry & foods containing milk, cream, sour cream, or soft cheese.'

All 10 subway tunnels between Manhattan and Brooklyn were flooded during the storm, as the saltwater surge inundated signals, switches and third rails and covered tracks with sludge, she said.



The entire system wasn't flooded and the authority was already pumping water.

Workers ultimately will have to walk all the hundreds of miles of track to inspect it, she said, and it wasn't clear how long that would take. Trains had been moved to safety before the storm.

Rubble: People in Atlantic City view the area where a 2000-foot section of the 'uptown' boardwalk was destroyed by flooding

Sand and debris cover a part of town near the ocean in New Jersey after serious flooding ravaged the coastline

Chaos: A boat moved by gushing waters rests on the tracks at Metro-North's Ossining Station on the Hudson Line Pedestrians skirt around flooded areas on the Lower East Side of Manhattan as they try to get back to normal

Pictures taken of the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy on the Lower East side in New York



Sweep up: Workers clean up sheets of blown-out glass in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy - many store faces took a beating from the strong winds

Left: A map showing track of Hurricane Sandy through New England, with inset showing projected rainfall totals through Wednesday night and right. mid-Atlantic states showing storm surge from the superstorm storm Challenge: Firefighters tackle a blaze in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York, in which more than 80 homes were destroyed Tearful: A woman cries as she and others look at homes devastated by Superstorm Sandy at the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York Lost in the fire: A woman stands among the still-smouldering remains of homes which burned down in the Breezy Point area of Queens in New York Upsetting: Tom and Deidre Duffy look through the wreckage of their home at Breezy Point, in Queens, which was devastated by fire Gone: Deidre Duffy studies all that is left of her home at Breezy Point, in the Queens borough of New York Toy: A doll's head can be seen among the charred remains of a house destroyed by fire in the aftermath of the post-tropical storm

Destroyed: Residents look over the remains of burned homes in the Rockaways section of New York View from above: This aerial photograph shows burned-out homes in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York after the fire

Desolate: Residents walk past debris by the Con Edison 14 street and Avenue C power plant on the Lower East Side on Manhattan. An electrical explosion caused a shut down of power due to high winds and flood waters

Mayor Bloomberg said there was just no telling when power and transit would be back, but estimated some bus service would be restored by Tuesday afternoon.



'Clearly the challenges our city faces in the coming days are enormous,' he said.



Water lapped over the seawall in Battery Park City, flooding rail yards, subway tracks, tunnels and roads.



Rescue workers floated bright orange rafts down flooded downtown streets, while police officers rolled slowly down the street with loudspeakers telling people to go home.



'This will be one for the record books,' said John Miksad, senior vice president for electric operations at Consolidated Edison, which had more than 670,000 customers without power in and around New York City.



An unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater - 3 feet above the previous record - gushed into Gotham, inundating tunnels, subway stations and the electrical system that powers Wall Street, and sent hospital patients and tourists scrambling for safety.



Time to heal: City of Elmira N.Y., electrician, Nate Battle fixes a traffic light that was downed from high winds



Search: Aviators of the 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion, New Jersey National Guard, look for displaced residents along the coastline of Seaside Heights today Water, water everywhere: An aerial view of flooding on the bay side of Seaside, New Jersey Livelihood damaged: A man cleans up the remains of his food store damaged by Hurricane Sandy, in New York's South Street Seaport

Helping hand: Jolito Ortiz, left, helps sweep water out of his friend's apartment while cleaning up after flooding

Surveying: Rod Zindani surveys the damage to his Best Of New York Food Deli

Flooded areas: Highlighted areas show flooding in New York. An unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater - 3 feet above the previous record - gushed into Gotham

Plan of action: Workers survey the damage from a fallen tree in lower Manhattan this morning

Debris: A dead deer, right, is pictured with driftwood and debris left by a combination of storm surge as a man holds a battered road sign



Ripped from the ground: People pass a fallen tree in the Battery Park neighborhood of Manhattan

Hope springs: An unidentified couple collect ginkgo fruit knocked from trees by the ferocious winds, as a stunning rainbow appears like an arcing message of hope over the flooded devastation of New York left in the wake of the devastating storm



Strewn across street: Debris outside flats belonging to actress Anne Hathaway and reality star Olivia Palermo's building

Precarious: A crane attached to One57, a luxury apartment tower under construction in midtown Manhattan, hangs down after partially collapsing amid gusts from Sandy

Devastation: A fallen tree and power line ripped from the ground outside homes on Harvard Street in Garden City, New York

Curiosity turned to concern overnight as New York City residents watched whole neighborhoods disappear into darkness as power was cut.



The World Trade Center site was a glowing ghost near the tip of Lower Manhattan.

Residents reported seeing no lights but the strobes of emergency vehicles and the glimpses of flashlights in nearby apartments. Lobbies were flooded, cars floated and people started to worry about food.



A huge fire destroyed 80 to 100 houses in a flooded beachfront neighborhood, forcing firefighters to undertake daring rescues and injuring three people.

More than 190 firefighters contained the blaze but were still putting out some pockets of fire more than nine hours after it erupted.



Shock: Residents look over the remains of burned homes in the Rockaways section

As daylight broke, neighbors walked around aimlessly through their smoke-filled Breezy Point neighborhood, which sits on the Rockaway peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. Electrical wires dangled within feet of the street.



Officials said the fire was reported around 11 p.m. Monday in an area flooded by the superstorm that began sweeping through the city earlier.

Firefighters told WABC-TV that the water was chest high on the street, and they had to use a boat to make rescues.



They said in one apartment home, about 25 people were trapped in an upstairs unit, and the two-story home next door was ablaze and setting fire to the apartment's roof.



Firefighters climbed an awning to get to the trapped people and took them downstairs to a boat in the street.



Rescued: Hospital workers evacuate a patient Deborah Dadlani from NYU Langone Medical Center during Hurricane Sandy

ighting the way: Using torches Deborah Dadlani is moved in the dark from NYU Langone Medical Center

Treatment: A patient is wheeled to an ambulance in the rain during an evacuation of New York University Tisch Medical today

No train service: Veronica De Souza posted this extraordinary picture ('via ninjapito') on Twitter of the 86th Street station with water above the platform

Extraordinary: This CCTV photo shows flood waters from Hurricane Sandy rushing in to the Hoboken PATH train station through an elevator shaft in New Jersey

Aid at hand: An emergency operations centre in Fairfax County, Virginia, co-ordinates the mammoth response to the severe flooding caused by Sandy

Video footage of the scene showed a hellish swath of tightly packed homes fully engulfed in orange flames as firefighters hauled hoses while sloshing in ankle-high water.



Many homes appeared completely flattened by the wind-whipped flames. One firefighter suffered a minor injury and was taken to a hospital.



Two civilians suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene.



In September, the same neighborhood was struck by a tornado that hurled debris in the air, knocked out power and startled residents who once thought of twisters as a Midwestern phenomenon.

Skyscrapers swayed and creaked in winds that partially toppled a crane 74 stories above Midtown.

Right before dawn, a handful of taxis were out on the streets, though there was an abundance of emergency and police vehicles.

Time to act: President Obama has declared a 'major disaster' in New York and Long Island as swathes of the city woke up under water after a night of being battered by Superstorm Sandy

