Tropical Storm Irene swept through the desolate streets of New York on Sunday, flooding low-lying areas and leaving millions of homes without power along the Eastern Seaboard as it continued on to New England. Most New Yorkers emerged from their makeshift bunkers to find little of the widespread devastation the authorities had feared.

But the aftermath of the storm, at least in New York and its suburbs, could be most felt on Monday in the early-morning commute -- which, for some people, was a nonstarter.

Although most of the city subway’s 22 lines were running by 6 a.m. on Monday, the experience could not be more different outside the city, where fallen trees and downed wires caused problems throughout suburban New York and Connecticut. There was no service whatsoever on the Metro-North Railroad, and no commuter service into New York on New Jersey Transit. The Long Island Rail Road had extremely limited train service; Amtrak was not running any trains between Boston and Philadelphia, and service between New York and Albany was also stopped.

PATH trains did resume on Monday; New Jersey Transit buses also were running on a truncated weekday schedule. But for many suburban commuters, getting to New York meant doing something out of their normal routine: taking ferries, commuter vans or finding instant car pool partners.