NEWS,04.01.2013

US jobs ease on fiscal cliff angst

The pace of hiring by US employers eased slightly in December, pointing to a lackluster pace of economic growth that was unable to make further inroads in the country's still high unemployment rate.Payrolls outside the farming sector grew 155 000 last month, the labour department said on Friday. That was in line with analysts' expectations and slightly below the level for November.Gains in employment were distributed broadly throughout the economy, from manufacturing and construction to health care.That should reinforce expectations that the economy will grow about 2% this year, unlikely to quickly bring down the unemployment rate or make the US Federal Reserve rethink its easy-money policies, which have been propping up the recovery."It's not a booming economy, but it is growing," Jim O'Sullivan, an economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York, said before the data was released.The jobless rate held steady at 7.8% in December, down nearly a percentage point from a year earlier but still well above the average rate over the last 60 years of about 6%. The labour department raised its estimate for the unemployment rate in November by a tenth of a point to 7.8%, citing a slight change in the labour market's seasonal swings.Most economists expect the US economy will be held back by tax hikes this year as well as by weak spending by households and businesses, which are still trying to reduce their debt burdens.Friday's data nonetheless gave signals of growing momentum in the labour market's recovery from the 2007/9 recession. Many economists had expected December's payroll gains to be padded by one-time factors like the recovery from a mammoth storm that hit the East Coast in late October.The government had said last month the storm had no substantial impact on the November data, and many economists expected the government to recant by revising downward in Friday's report its estimate for payroll gains in November. Instead, the government revised its estimate for November payrolls upward by 15 000. "There is some evidence that underlying jobs growth has improved," Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics in London, said before the report was released. Austerity's biteDespite the signs of some momentum in hiring, a wave of government spending cuts due to begin around March loom over the economy. Many economic forecasts assume the cuts which would hit the military, education and other areas will ultimately be pushed into next year as part of a deal sought by lawmakers to reduce gradually the government's debt burden.Initially, the cuts were planned to have begun this month as part of a $600bn austerity package that also included tax hikes. Hiring in December may have been slowed by uncertainty over the timing of the austerity, economists say. Congress this week passed legislation to avoid most of the tax hikes and postpone the spending cuts.Even with the last-minute deal to avoid much of the fiscal cliff, most workers will see their take-home pay reduced this month as a two-year cut in payroll taxes expires. That leaves the Fed's efforts to lower borrowing costs as the main program for stimulating the economy.The Fed has kept interest rates near zero since 2008, and in September promised open-ended bond purchases to support lending further. On Thursday, however, minutes from the Fed's December policy review pointed to rising concerns over how the asset purchases will affect financial markets.Analysts ahead of the report expected some of the strength in job creation in December would be due to the Fed's policies."Despite the end-of-year angst over the fiscal cliff, financial conditions remained supportive of job growth in December," economists at Nomura said in a note to clients earlier in the week.

Aid for Sandy victims falls short

US lawmakers finally approved emergency disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy on Friday, but only after a delay that sparked East Coast Republican outrage against their own party leadership Lawmakers voted 354-67 to provide the Federal Emergency Management Agency with $9.7bn to pay the flood insurance claims of thousands of victims of the killer October storm that devastated coastal communities.The bill now goes to the US Senate, where it could pass as early as Friday before the two chambers go into recess, but the sum falls short of what was originally promised and bitter debate is likely top continue.The Senate had approved a comprehensive $60.4bn Sandy aid package last week, but House Speaker John Boehner, stung by fractious negotiations over the deal to avert the fiscal cliff crisis, refused to bring it to the floor."It's been 70 days and many have been living in misery and heartache," Republican congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey told the House, describing the vote as "the first step of what we need to do to rebuild lives."Democrats again attacked the Republican leadership for what congressman Rob Andrews of New Jersey called the "inexcusable and unjust" delay in getting a bill to the House floor.And, while Boehner has pledged to bring the remaining $51bn in aid to a vote on January 15 as a two-part package, Andrews said it would be "meaningless" unless the Senate turned around and quickly approved the aid.Boehner had scrambled to tamp down fury over the delay on aid to victims of the storm, which killed 120 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes and businesses in New York, New Jersey and neighbouring northeastern states.President Barack Obama, instrumental in cobbling together the $60bn package, joined New Jersey's outspoken Republican Governor Chris Christie in leading the charge against Boehner's delay.Christie offered a blistering critique of his own party's congressional leadership, calling Boehner's delay "absolutely disgraceful."Fuming Republican congressman Peter King of New York also tore into his own leadership, saying the delay was "a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans."The outrage quickly gained the national spotlight, and Boehner wasted little time announcing the two-part vote."This is not a handout, this is not something we're looking for as a favor," King told the House. "What we're asking for is to be treated the same as victims (from) other natural disaster victims have been treated."Some Republicans including Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, a hurricane-prone state which has received billions in federal disaster aid, voted against the Sandy bill in the Senate, claiming it was stuffed with "pork" funding for projects or elements unrelated to Sandy relief.Darrell Issa, the powerful Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, continued in that vein Friday, saying "we need to get the pork out" and pointing to funding in the Senate bill that went to programs in Alaska, more than 3 000 miles (4 800 kilometers) from the Sandy disaster zone.He said he was hopeful the re-written legislation due for a vote January 15 would be a "clean bill" focused exclusively on Sandy relief."I believe today we are buying a little bit of time, but for the people on the Eastern Seaboard who are suffering, time is running out," he said.FEMA has announced it will soon run out of flood insurance funding without the $9.7bn increase.

Signs of hope for eurozone

Tentative signs the eurozone may have passed the worst of its downturn emerged in December but business surveys also suggested Britain's economy tipped back into contraction in the final months of 2012.Friday's purchasing managers indexes, which measure the activity of thousands of companies worldwide, brought mixed news from Europe.Activity in Britain's dominant services sector fell for the first time in two years and at a faster pace than predicted by any analyst polled by Reuters, while the speed of decline among French, Italian and Spanish firms slowed.Data from the United States due later on Friday are expected to show continued but modest jobs growth and a steady expansion of its services sector.With Chinese growth showing evidence of revival, that leaves Europe as the world's economic slowcoach going into 2013.In particular, economists were surprised by news the UK services PMI slipped to 48.9 in December from 50.2 last month, sagging below the 50 mark that divides from contraction for the first time in two years."The PMIs point to an economy that is contracting modestly," said Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg Bank. "The broader picture is that for some time the economy has been bouncing around the bottom ... and I think this is likely to stay with us for the next couple of quarters."Survey compiler Markit said the figures suggest Britain's economy shrank 0.2% in the final quarter of 2012, a slightly bigger drop than most other private-sector forecasts.The eurozone composite PMI hit its highest levels since last March, rising to 47.2 in December from 46.5 in November, although it remained rooted below the 50 mark for an 11th month."I think (the eurozone PMIs) are showing a decisive bottoming-out of activity," said James Nixon, chief European economist at Societe Generale."Now, the actual levels of the surveys are still consistent with GDP declining, but at least things aren't getting worse any faster."  Worst over?The decline eased among the services firms that make up the bulk of the eurozone's economy, ranging from banks to restaurants, but manufacturers endured an awful end to 2012.Survey compiler Markit warned that Friday's figures would probably fail to prevent the eurozone's recession deepening in the fourth quarter of last year, thanks to dismal figures in October and November."The surveys at least bring some substance to the belief that the worst is over and that a return to growth is in sight for the region in 2013," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.As with last year, the eurozone economy's fate hinges on the resolution of the sovereign debt crisis, which still smoulders despite the creation of financial firewalls by the European Central Bank and European Union.German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said last week he thought the worst had passed for the debt crisis, although similar sentiments have been expressed by various European policymakers and politicians since mid-2010.Friday's European data followed news that China's services sector saw its slowest rate of expansion in nearly a year and a half in December, although the HSBC services PMI still pointed to a modest revival in economic growth.And economists expect the US ISM non-manufacturing survey, another PMI, to fall slightly to 54.2 in December from November's 54.7. While showing slowing growth, that would still signal a far brighter economic outlook for the US compared with its European peers.Analysts also predict the US economy added around 150 000 non-farm jobs in December, compared with 146 000 the previous month.

NEWS,01.11.2012

Bloomberg endorses Obama over climate change

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed US President Barack Obama for a second term, citing the importance of Obama's record on climate change.The endorsement follows the devastating blow dealt to the New York area by superstorm Sandy."Our climate ischanging,""And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City andaround the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be given this week's devastation should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action."Bloomberg said Obama had taken significant steps to reduce carbon consumption, whereas Republican challenger Mitt Romney had backtracked on earlier positions he had taken as governor of Massachusetts to battle climate change.Obama 'honoured' The nod from Bloomberg, a Republican turned independent, comes after Obama won praise from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, for his quick reaction to the storm."I'm honored to have Mayor Bloomberg's endorsement," Obama said in a statement."I deeply respect him for his leadership in business, philanthropy and government, and appreciate the extraordinary job he's doing right now, leading New York City through these difficult days."'Divisive populist agenda' But Mayor Bloomberg also criticised Obama in his article, accusing him of embracing a "divisive populist agenda".He also said Obama had "devoted little time and effort to developing and sustaining a coalition of centrists, which doomed hope for any real progress on illegal guns, immigration, tax reform, job creation and deficit reduction".However, Bloomberg concluded that on a number of issues dear to him, Obama stood closer to him than Romney, who he chastised for changing some of his positions - including his policy on climate change."If the 1994 or 2003 version of Mitt Romney were running for president, I may well have voted for him because, like so many other independents, I have found the past four years to be, in a word, disappointing," Bloomberg said.'Work not yet done' Obama returned to the campaign trail for the first time in four days on Thursday, declaring "our work is not yet done" and reviving his successful 2008 campaign slogan: change.The president, who won the White House four years ago thanks in part to his themes of "hope" and "change," had largely avoided the same themes until now.Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, sought to portray himself as the new candidate of change, Obama aimed to reclaim that mantle in a neck-and-neck race with just five days to go before Election Day on November 6."I know what change looks like because I've fought for it," Obama told a crowd of some 2,600 on an airport tarmac in Wisconsin, one of a handful of battleground states that will determine the winner of the election.Obama said Romney's proposals to reduce regulations for banks and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans were examples of policies that had led to the economic problems that he inherited when he became president in 2009.'Salesman' Romney "Governor Romney has been using all his talents as a salesman to dress up these very same policies that failed our country so badly - the very same policies we've been cleaning up after for the past four years - and he is offering them up as change," Obama said."Well, let me tell you Wisconsin, we know what change looks like. And what the governor is offering sure ain't change."The Romney campaign, boosted by their candidate's surge in the polls over the past month, dismissed Obama's arguments."We've said all along this election is a choice between the status quo and real change  change that offers promise that the future will be better than the past," said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg."President Obama's misguided policies and broken promises have let down millions of Americans, and we can't afford four more years like the last four."Obama conceded that he had not been able to make progress on all the changes he promised in 2008, but he noted as he repeatedly does that he ended the war in Iraq, repealed a policy that prevented gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, and ordered the US mission that killed Osama bin Laden.Keeping a slightly more positive tone, Obama drew distinctions with Romney without being as aggressive as he has been in recent weeks.He did not mention the word "Romnesia" - the term he has used to delight crowds when describing what he says are Romney's tendencies to shift positions.But he kept up strong criticism of his opponent. Obama portrayed the Republican challenger as someone who would not bring bipartisanship to Washington - a promise Obama also made four years ago and has had trouble keeping.Superstorm Sandy Obama, who has focused his campaign primarily on appealing to middle class Americans, also used a section of his speech to praise the record of former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who has become the top surrogate for Obama in the final days of the campaign.The remarks were Obama's first at a political event since Sandy devastated parts of the eastern United States earlier this week.The president spent three days off the campaign trail to oversee the response effort.Obama opened his remarks with a nod to the suffering experienced by those affected by the storm, and aides said he would be briefed about the recovery process throughout the day.Meanwhile, Romney returned to campaign attacks against Obama, hitting the Democrat for proposing more governmentbureaucracy.Romney returns to Obama criticism Romney swept into must-win Virginia looking to increase turnout among Republican voters in a conservative area of the state to help offset the Democrats' advantage the northern area.Virginia went for Obama in 2008 but may flip for the Republican this year."Turnout here makes a big difference," Romney told a crowd gathered inside a window and door factory.The former governor of Massachusetts had not mentioned Obama's name in two days of events this week as he toned down campaign rhetoric while Americans along the East Coast reeled from the superstorm Sandy.But with the recovery now under way, Romney resumed his standard campaign fare of singling out the president for criticism.He leaped on a comment that Obama made in an interview aired by MSNBC on Monday in which the president said he would like to create a new government agency headed by a "secretary of business' to try to help businesses create jobs."I've said that I want to consolidate a whole bunch of government agencies. We should have one Secretary of Business, instead of nine different departments that are dealing with things like giving loans to SBA (the Small Business Administration) or helping companies with exports," Obama had said.This comment bolstered Romney's charge that the president wants to expand government rather than boost the private sector."I don't think adding a new chair to his cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street," Romney said.The race for the White House remained effectively tied on Thursday, with Obama backed by 47% of likely voters and Romney supported by 46% in a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll. That margin has been constant in the online poll for three days running and is statistically insignificant.

No fuel as NY pumps run dry

 

Drivers and homeowners scrambled to secure fuel for their cars and generators in the US Northeast on Wednesday as storm-hit petrol stations started to run dry.More than half of all petrol service stations in the New York City area and New Jersey were shut because of depleted fuel supplies and power outages, frustrating attempts to restore normal life, industry officials said.Reports of long lines, dark stations and empty tanks circulated across the region, with some station owners unable to pump fuel due to a lack of power. Others quickly ran their tanks dry because of intensified demand and logistical problems in delivering fresh supplies.The lack of working petrol stations is likely to compound travel problems in the region, with the New York City subway system down until at least Thursday and overland rail and bus services severely disrupted. Homeowners running back-up generators during the power cuts may also run short of fuel.“I don’t have any lights and need this gasoline for my generator,” said Abdul Rahim Anwar at a Getty service station in Gowanus, Brooklyn, as he put two full jerry cans into his trunk.Tempers flared as a queue of at least 30 cars spilled down the street, with drivers blaring horns, shouting and getting out of their cars. Pump attendant Nadim Amid said the station had already run out of regular gasoline and only had a tiny amount of super unleaded and diesel left. One driver, a doctor who asked not to be named, said she had driven from New Jersey, where half of all businesses and homes are still without power. More than 80% of filling stations in the state were unable to sell gasoline as of Wednesday morning, said Sal Risalvato, head of the New Jersey Gasoline, Convenience, Automotive Association.“It’s going to be an ugly few days until we can see both power and supplies restored,” Risalvato said. Petrol stations on New York’s Long Island and the city borough of Staten Island also reported shortages, while lengthy lines were seen in the borough of Queens. Commuters may see higher prices at the pumps in the coming days, though oil traders said it will also dampen demand for fuel and increase stockpiles in the region.A source at the US Environmental Protection Agency said it has received a request from a state hit by the storm to waive a clean gasoline requirement to help ease increase supplies. Gas but no power, power but no gasKevin Beyer, president of the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association in Smithtown, New York, estimated that less than half of all stations were able to sell fuel from Wednesday morning.“I have gas in the ground but no power. For many others they’re facing the opposite problem, with power but no gasoline. For the few stations that are lucky enough to have both they’ve got huge lines out front,” Beyer said.Beyer estimated it could take until the end of next week to get all fuel stations operating again.The problem is not a severe shortage of fuel in the Northeast, but widespread power outages and the storm-related logistical problems of getting the fuel from refineries and terminals to those who need it.Jenn Hibbs, an account director at marketing firm Marden-Kane in Garden City, Long Island, said there was only one fuel station open within 16km of her house. Friends were sharing tips on Facebook about where they could get fuel, but two lines for gas leading to the service station were both over half a mile long.“It’s making people think about whether they can get to work, whether they have enough gas in the tank to get there and back,” Hibbs said.

Obama, Romney get back to campaigning

President Barack Obama returned to full-force campaigning on Thursday, ending a three-day pause to manage the federal response to the historic storm that battered the East Coast. He holds slim leads in many of the key US battleground states five days before the 6 November election.Polling, however, also shows Obama locked in a tie nationwide with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who tempered his criticism of the president this week to avoid the appearance of seeking political advantage in the midst of a natural disaster.Both candidates faced a day of trying to strike the right tone in an intensely stressful race.Battleground statesObama's lead in a majority of the nine so-called battleground states could determine the outcome. Those states are neither reliably Republican nor Democratic, giving them outsized importance in the US system for choosing the president. The winner is not the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide but the one who manages to accumulate at least 270 electoral votes in state-by-state contests. Those votes are determined by a combination of a state's population and representation in Congress.Despite a Romney surge nationwide after the three presidential debates, polling shows Obama holding on to leads in enough of the all-important swing states - most notably Ohio - to win at least the necessary 270 electors. No Republican candidate for the White House has ever won the election without capturing Ohio.Both candidates are battling to win over the thin slice of the electorate that remains undecided while ensuring that their supporters go to the polls. SandySuperstorm Sandy was bound to hurt turnout in hard-hit New Jersey and New York, but both are heavily Democratic, and it was unlikely to have a significant effect on results. Election officials were promising every effort to have polls open or direct voters to alternative locations where necessary.This week's storm, and the federal government response to the devastation, could serve to cause voters to make up their minds.The contest between Obama and Romney, at heart, has been an argument over the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans.Obama believes Washington can have a positive effect. Romney believes the government should become much smaller and, therefore, collect much less in taxes.Obama has been given high marks, even from some of his harshest Republican critics, for his handling of this week's storm crisis and the dispatch of massive federal aid to victims. Romney has been forced to answer questions about his earlier campaign statements that the key federal emergency relief organisation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency or Fema, should turn its role over to the states.Heavy travelAs his campaign resumes, Obama will try to make up for lost time with a heavy travel itinerary in the coming days, including rallies on Thursday in Wisconsin, Nevada and Colorado.Obama spokesperson Jennifer Psaki said the president remains focused on the storm recovery, but must resume campaigning because of the "reality" of Tuesday's election and the need to continue making the case for Americans to give him four more years in the White House.The partisan sniping continued this week from the candidates' surrogates and their running mates. Much of it focused on Romney's new television and radio ads in critical Ohio that suggest automakers General Motors and Chrysler are adding jobs in China at the expense of workers in the Midwestern swing state. Vice President Joe Biden said the spots were "one of the most flagrantly dishonest ads I can ever remember".Obama's campaign planned to keep pressing its criticism of the ads as it seeks to block Romney's prospects for a breakthrough in Ohio and other Midwestern states where the auto industry is deeply important to the economy, the most important issue in the 2012 election.The Republican ticket hasn't backed away from the ad. Running mate Paul Ryan said in a statement that "American taxpayers are on track to lose $25bna s a result of President Obama's handling of the auto bailout, and GM and Chrysler are expanding their production overseas".FactsIn fact, Chrysler is adding 1 100 jobs to its plant in Toledo, Ohio. It's also adding production facilities in China as demand for cars there grows. Because of trade rules, it's easier for companies to build cars for the Chinese market in China. It's also more efficient. Japanese automakers, for example, have plants in the US to meet American demand.Romney was campaigning Thursday in Virginia, while Ryan was appearing at events in Nevada and Colorado.Biden had two events scheduled in Iowa. Obama was starting his day in Wisconsin, making up an event that was cancelled earlier in the week because of the storm. He had a rally planned later in Las Vegas, as well as Boulder, Colorado, a heavily Democratic area.More than 19 million people have already voted in the presidential, either by mail or in person. No votes will be counted until 6 November, but some key states are releasing the party affiliation of those who have voted.Democrats have an edge in votes cast in battleground states Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Republicans have an advantage in Colorado.

NEWS,31.10.2012

'The entire country's been watching,' Obama tells Sandy victims

US President Barack Obama and Republican Governor Chris Christie have been touring storm-stricken parts of New Jersey, taking in scenes of flooded roads and burning homes in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.The huge storm crashed ashore on Monday, crippling transportation, knocking out power for millions and killing at least 60 people in nine states with a massive storm surge and rain that caused epic flooding.Obama and Christie, riding in the Marine One presidential helicopter, got an aerial view of some of the hardest-hit areas of the New Jersey shoreline, and afterward the president promised to cut through red tape to help storm victims.From the air in and around the gambling resort of Atlantic City, Obama saw whole streets underwater, beachfront homes swamped by flooding and piers partially blown away.He also saw the still-burning remnants of about eight homes set on fire during the storm, the biggest to hit the US mainland in generations."If your homes aren't too badly damaged we can hopefully get you back in," Obama told residents at an evacuation shelter in the town of Brigantine."The entire country's been watching. Everyone knows how hard Jersey has been hit.""We're not going to tolerate any red tape. We're not going to tolerate any bureaucracy," Obama said.Despite being a top surrogate for Obama's rival Mitt Romney in the November 6 election, Christie has kept up his praise for Obama for federal support during and after the devastating storm.Today he only good words for the Democratic president. "I want to thank the president for being here today," he said.Federal Emergency Management Administration director Craig Fugate is also travelling with Christie and Obama. Sandy has killed at least 60 people in the US Weather warnings remain in place as the centre of the storm moves across Pennsylvania towards Canada The government says the storm may be the most expensive in US history Some 5.9 million properties remain without power Large sections of NYC remain submerged by floodwater Many transport services - including most of the NYC subway - are out of action The New York Marathon will go on Sandy is causing more havoc as it moves north toward Canada. Flooding warnings are in effect in the Great Lakes region and heavy snow has been falling in the Appalachian mountains.Remnants of the storm churned slowly over Pennsylvania on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. Winter storm warnings were in effect from southwestern Pennsylvania to eastern Tennessee.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a media conference mandatory evacuations in the city would not be lifted until the affected buildings had been inspected. He said bridges and tunnels - except for the George Washington Bridge - would be restricted to high-occupancy vehicles for the next several days.Bloomberg also announced a relief package for small business for whom "the storm represents an enormous challenge". He said the package included access to loans of up to $US10,000.Bloomberg said that tap water in NYC had been "tested again and again and again" and was safe to drink.He confirmed that the New York Marathon would go ahead as planned, saying it was a "great event for New York" and he believed those who had died would want it to be held.Asked if he believed there was a link between storms such as Sandy and climate change he said it was safer to assume a link "the consequences of making a mistake in one direction are pretty severe".The New York Stock Exchange reopened on Wednesday US time after being closed for two days. Packed buses took commuters to work with the subway system halted after seawater flooded its tunnels.More than half of all petrol stations in the New York City area and New Jersey were shut, with many running dry.John F Kennedy and Newark airports reopened with limited service after thousands of flights were cancelled, leaving travellers stuck for days.New York's LaGuardia Airport, the third of the airports that serve the nation's busiest airspace, was flooded and remained closed.Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the storm may be the most expensive in US history."Now we are looking at flooding on Lake Erie, possibly Lake Michigan," Napolitano said."We're looking at secondary flooding downstream as rivers fill with the remnants of Sandy and the water has to go somewhere."We are now in recovery mode - response and recovery - we are moving large amounts of resources into the affected areas."It will be one of the most, probably if not the most, extensive and expensive (storms) in our nation's history."One disaster-modeling company said Sandy may have caused up to $US15 billion in insured losses.The storm killed 27 people in New York state, including 22 in New York City, and six each in New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Five other states reported fatalities.Sandy killed 69 people in the Caribbean last week as a hurricane before it slammed into the US east coast with winds of about 130km/h and pushed inland.Battered by a record storm surge of nearly 4.2 metres, large sections of New York City remained submerged under several feet of water on Wednesday.In the city's borough of Staten Island, police used helicopters to pluck stranded residents from rooftops.Across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey, members of the National Guard helped residents pump floodwater from their homes, the city said on Twitter.Chest-high floodwaters rushed into the streets in a flash on Monday night just after the power went out, and by Wednesday morning the water was still knee high in many areas of Hoboken.National Guard vehicles patrolled the streets but emergency vehicles were scarce, witnesses Some 5.9 million homes and businesses in several states remained without power on Wednesday morning, down from a high of nearly 8.5 million, which surpassed the record 8.4 million customers who went dark from last year's Hurricane Irene.In New Jersey, Christie said it could take seven to 10 days before power was restored statewide.In the southern half of Manhattan, a quarter of a million residents remained without power after a transformer explosion at a Consolidated Edison substation on Monday night and the flooding of another. Citywide, some 760,000 customers lacked power on Wednesday.

Hurricane Sandy Disrupts Food Distribution, 'Thousands Of Trucks' In Limbo

 

Thousands of truckloads of food that were headed for stores in the Northeast are stuck on roadsides and in warehouses following the crippling blow Hurricane Sandy dealt to the nation's food distribution system.Though the system is struggling in the face of uncertainty, no one who spoke to HuffPost on Tuesday was concerned about short-term food shortages or a storm-related increase in prices across the region. Still, the hurricane demonstrates just how complex and vulnerable the networks are that deliver America's food supply. "I've got thousands of trucks that are sitting on the East Coast," said Ed Chouinard of Perishable Distribution Solutions (PDS), a nationwide network of meat and perishable cargo delivery trucks based in Chicago. "For our clients, it's almost entirely a question of whether or not they have power, and right now we're calling around everywhere [in New York and New Jersey] and no one's open." Experts and food distributors declined on Tuesday to speculate on the impact Sandy might have on food industry bottom lines, noting that suppliers had ample warning about the coming storm and price gouging on staples like food is illegal. Nonetheless, they were eager to see supply lines return to normal.Chouinard said his company typically delivers New York-bound meat to two wholesale meat markets, the Hunts Point Market and the Brooklyn Market -- neither of which had restored power on Tuesday."I gotta make a decision this afternoon about whether my drivers should leave Chicago with today's shipment," Chouinard said, "but I don't think we're going to be shipping today. We'll reassess later in the week." For residents in some of the most devastated areas, like the Jersey Shore and parts of Queens, N.Y., the PDS meat delivery interruption is just one in a series of food deliveries stalled by the storm, many of which were bound for supermarkets and restaurants that have yet to reopen. Preparations made before the storm, however, mean there is little chance of an outright food shortage, Chouinard said."Most of the grocery stores will have a lot of inventory and backup generators," said Chouinard. "Most warehouses have one or two weeks worth of inventory. But people don't shop much for food if they've got no power. There's more likely to be a surge in demand when the power comes back on, because then everyone's restocking. But there won't be a shortage."New York City had reopened some of its bridges by Wednesday afternoon, though the Holland and Hugh Carey Tunnels remained closed, according to the New York Department of Transportation. Many sections of lower Manhattan remained without power, leaving stores and restaurants unable to safely store food -- even if trucks managed to deliver it.In New Jersey, parts of many major highways remained closed on Tuesday afternoon. At one section of the New Jersey Turnpike near the hard-hit Jersey Shore, entire railroad cars had even been swept onto the highway by the storm surge. Two and a half million people -- or 62 percent of the state -- lost power during the storm. The storm's effect in the Garden State was also evident in the number of supermarkets forced to close during the storm -- the popular regional chain ShopRite listed 97 locations in New Jersey that closed due to the storm. By late Tuesday, some had reopened, including a ShopRite in Garwood, N.J. According to Westfield, N.J. resident Sara Soriente, the store was open "and stocked with not just food, but also ice and firewood."In Pennsylvania, more than 400 roads were still closed on Tuesday afternoon. West Virginia, which was hit by blizzards due to Sandy, had shut down parts of the major highway across the top of the state on Tuesday, along with more than 30 other routes.Large-scale road closures greatly impact food distribution systems, said Charley Wilson, VP of corporate communications at major food distributor Sysco. The company, which supplies products mainly to healthcare facilities, restaurants and schools, has been working around the clock to prepare clients for the storm, Wilson said, "to make sure they had enough staples in advance. You hope that holds them until we can get back on the roads."Wilson said dangerous road conditions, not power outages, were the biggest hindrance to Sysco deliveries in the tri-state area on Tuesday. "As soon as we've been given the signal that there's safe passage and flooding is receding, we'll begin the process of getting food to our partners whether they have power or not," he said. He added that the company has been working closely with disaster relief agencies, "to make sure we're some of the first responders and we're ready to go back in as soon as it's safe."But even quick responses and good planning are no match for the threat posed to perishable foods by a prolonged power outage, said Cary Miller of Food Industry News, a trade publication. A veteran consultant for food services, Miller said that even after power is restored and streets are cleared, "the host of sanitation issues that food service operations will be facing are paralyzing" including repairs, flood clean-up and food safety. When it comes to compromised food, however, it's not just restaurants and supermarkets that need to take precautions against food-borne illnesses. Individuals also need to be extra vigilant, both during and after a power outage, to ensure that food at home is kept cold enough to prevent the spread of bacteria, especially for meat. On Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie released a series of food storage guidelines for residents affected by the storm.But as people in the tri-state area worry this week about delivering, buying, and storing food, in parts of New York City, the food industry was back in business almost immediately following the storm. On Tuesday morning, many bodegas, grocery stores and restaurants in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, opened their doors to customers, in spite of fallen trees that had destroyed cars and storefronts during the night.“We anticipated there might be problems getting food delivered and ordered extra supplies last week,” said Mike Saadi, the owner of Bergen Bagels on Myrtle Avenue, while serving up bagels to a long line of Pratt Institute students. “Everyone needs bagels during a storm,” Saadi said.An Associated Supermarket in Brooklyn was also open and well stocked on Tuesday morning. Fedelia Edwin, an assistant manager, said that while the storm halted a delivery of about 2,000 cases of food from New Jersey, it wasn't enough to deplete stocks. "We still have enough to make it through the rest of the week at least," she said.In Manhattan, the Fairway grocery store on 74th Street and Broadway was crowded with shoppers browsing the aisles, many of whom left with just one or two bags of groceries. Bread, milk, produce, and canned goods were all well stocked, although meats and Grade-A large eggs were harder to come by.Carol Gordon carried about three pounds of ground beef in her shopping basket, a purchase she decided to make when she saw the depleted meat section. “I hadn’t thought about trucks not being able to come in,” she said. “We’re spoiled on the Upper West Side, but this is the worst I’ve seen it. And it’s naive to think we could not be affected.”

US storm damage set to cost $20bn

Bill Keogh, president of disaster estimator Eqecat, confirmed the company's estimates of $5bn to $10bn in insured losses and $10bn to $20bn in total losses from Hurricane Sandy, which came ashore in New Jersey late on Monday and swept northward, knocking out power for more than eight million customers and shutting down four major cities."We think that's about right. ...It will be among the 10 to 15 most damaging storms" that have hit the United States, he told Bloomberg television.He said the assessments on real damages from wind and flooding-related losses and the costs of business shutdowns will take some time to collect."At this stage we're really just getting out facts from the ground... That will take a while."Fitch Ratings said that aside from physical damage from winds and flooding, it expects significant insurance claims from companies over lost business."While many lines of insurance will be affected, including property and auto, there is the potential for significant business interruption and contingent business interruption losses related to the flooding as the affected areas work to restore power and resume operations following the storm," Fitch said."The massive storm is impacting a wide variety of businesses in densely populated areas, including retail, corporate offices, transportation, manufacturing, and energy plants."Economists at IHS Global Insight said they expect the physical losses to top the $15bn of Hurricane Irene of last year."With Sandy being a much larger storm, it is likely to end up causing more flooding damage than its 2011 peer which would increase total damage estimates," said IHS economists Gregory Daco and Nigel Gault in a report on the storm."The commercial shutdown of the East Coast is likely to result in gross domestic product losses that may outweigh infrastructure damages," they added.While some losses to economic production will be recovered in rebuilding spending, they said, not all can be regained.Combining all of the disruptions from Sandy, they said, "early estimates point toward total economic losses of around $30bn to $50bn."That was still small compared to the $120bn in economic damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US Gulf of Mexico coastline in 2005, but still enough to reduce the economic growth rate in the fourth quarter by 0.6% points, they said.

NEWS,30.10.2012

Dozens dead as US reels from devastating superstorm

Millions of people have awoken to scenes of destruction wrought by monster storm Sandy after it smashed into the eastern United States, killing an estimated 35 people in seven states, cutting power to swathes of the nation's most densely populated region, swamping New York's subway system and submerging streets in Manhattan's financial districtSandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the country, dropped just below hurricane status before making landfall on Monday night in New Jersey.The storm interrupted the presidential campaign a week before Election Day posing both risks and opportunities for President Barack Obama as he seeks a second term in a tight race - and closed US financial markets for a second day.As a weakened but still massive storm system continued its trek inland, more than 1 million people in a dozen states were under orders to evacuate. Sandy left behind a trail of damage homes underwater, trees toppled and power lines downed - caused by epic flooding and fierce winds all along the Atlantic coast.The storm is expected to bring snow to eight US states, and Canada is bracing itself for the onslaught, even as its eastern areas have already experienced the storm's force.More than 100,000 Canadians were still without power on Tuesday after the huge storm Sandy toppled trees and power lines in Canada's most populous provinces, killed one person, and halted units at an Ontario refinery.In the storm's wake, Obama issued federal emergency decrees for New York and New Jersey, declaring that "major disasters" existed in both states. One disaster-forecasting company predicted economic losses could ultimately reach $20 billion, only half insured."It's total devastation down there, there are boats in the street five blocks from the ocean," said evacuee Peter Sandomeno, one of the owners of the Broadway Court Motel in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. "That's the worst storm I've ever seen, and I've been there for 11 years.Sandy, which was especially imposing because of its wide-ranging winds, brought a record storm surge of almost 14 feet (4.2 metres) to downtown Manhattan, well above the previous record of 3 metres during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.Two people in New York City reportedly died in the storm - a man in a house hit by a tree and a woman who stepped into an electrified puddle of water. Two other people were killed in suburban Westchester County, north of New York City, and two others were reported killed on suburban Long Island.A motor vehicle death in Massachusetts was blamed in part on the bad weather. Two other people were killed in Maryland in storm-related incidents, state authorities said, and deaths also were reported in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, CNN said.Toronto police also recorded one death a woman hit by flying debris.Sandy killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding US coastal areas.The unprecedented flooding hampered efforts to fight a massive fire that destroyed more than 50 homes in Breezy Point, a private beach community on the Rockaway barrier island in the New York City borough of Queens.New York University hospital was forced to evacuate more than 200 patients, among them babies on respirators in the neonatal intensive care unit, when the backup generator failed. Four of the newborns had to be carried down nine flights of stairs while nurses manually squeezed bags to deliver air to each of the baby's lungs, CNN reported.More than 8.1 million people in several US states were without electricity due to the storm, which crashed ashore late on Monday near the gambling resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey.Obama, who has made every effort to show himself staying on top of the storm situation, faces political danger if the federal government fails to respond well in the storm's aftermath, as was the case with predecessor George W Bush's botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.With Obama and Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney keeping campaigning on hold for a second day instead of launching their final push for votes ahead of the November 6 election, the storm's onslaught added a new level of uncertainty to an already tense, tight race for the White House.In an address on Tuesday local time, Obama said the federal government would do all it could to help local authorities cope with damage caused by the massive storm Sandy.The president, speaking at the national headquarters of the American Red Cross, said the storm, which slammed into some of the most densely populated areas of the eastern United States on Monday, was "not yet over" and that there were still risks."It is still moving north," he said. "There are still communities that could be affected. So I want to emphasise there are still risks of flooding, there are still risks of downed power lines, risks of high winds.""I want everyone leaning forward on this," an aide quoted Obama as telling his disaster-response team in the White House Situation Room. "I don't want to hear that we didn't do something because bureaucracy got in the way."Obama will travel to New Jersey to survey the damage and meet those affected on Wednesday local time.With politics cast aside for the moment, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, heaped praise on the Democratic incumbent for the government's initial storm response."The federal government response has been great," Christie, a staunch Romney supporter, told NBC's Today show. "I was on the phone at midnight again last night with the president personally ... and the president has been outstanding in this."Federal government offices in Washington, which was spared the full force of the storm, were closed for a second day on Tuesday, and schools were shut up and down the East Coast.The storm was plowing westward over south-central Pennsylvania, still packing near hurricane-force winds as strong as 105 km/h, the National Weather Service said.Wind gusts, rain and flooding were likely to extend well into Tuesday, but without the storm's earlier devastating power, said AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Dickey."Overall, the worst has past," Dickey said.The storm's wind field stretched from North Carolina north to the Canadian border and from West Virginia to a point in the Atlantic Ocean halfway to Bermuda, easily one of the largest ever seen, the National Hurricane Center said.Heavy snow fell in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains inland.Water poured into the subway system and tunnels that course under the city, raising concerns that the world's financial capital could be hobbled for days."Hitting at high tide, the strongest surge and the strongest winds all hit at the worst possible time," said Jeffrey Tongue, a meteorologist for the weather service in Brookhaven, New York.Hurricane-force winds as high as 90 miles per hour (145 km per hour) were recorded, he said. "Hopefully it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm," Tongue said.As residents and business owners began the daunting clean-up effort, large sections of New York City remained without power, and transportation in the metropolitan area was at a standstill.It was the worst disaster to strike the storied New York subway system in its 108-year history, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it could take up to four days to get the water out of the flooded train tunnels.New York City's subway is likely to be out of service for another four to five days after monster storm Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg said on Tuesday.The mayor said at a press conference that the city was hoping to resume limited bus service on Tuesday and full bus service on Wednesday.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a separate press conference that all bus fares would be suspended on Tuesday.New York City experienced 23 fires during the storm, with a severe one in Breezy Point, Queens, that burned more than 80 houses.Throughout New York state, 15 people died in connection with the storm, which touched down in New Jersey late on Monday, Cuomo said.Three towns in New Jersey, just west of New York City, were inundated with up to 5 feet (1.5 metres) of water after a levee on the nearby Hackensack River was overtopped or breached, officials said. Rescuers were using boats to aid the marooned residents of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt.In New York, a crane partially collapsed and dangled precariously from a 90-story luxury apartment building under construction in Midtown Manhattan.Much of the city was deserted, as its subways, buses, commuter trains, bridges and airports were closed. Power outages darkened most of downtown Manhattan as well as Westchester County, affecting more than 650,000 customers, power company Consolidated Edison said.Neighborhoods along the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan were underwater, as were low-lying streets in Battery Park near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood.US stock markets were set to be closed on Tuesday. They closed on Monday for the first time since the attacks of September 11, 2001.Most areas in downtown Manhattan were without power on Monday morning. As the sun rose, most of the water in Manhattan's low-lying Battery Park City appeared to have receded.A security guard at 7 World Trade Center, Gregory Baldwin, was catching some rest in his car after laboring overnight against floodwaters that engulfed a nearby office building."The water went inside up to here," he said, pointing to his chest. "The water came shooting down from Battery Park with the gusting wind."In Lower Manhattan, firefighters used inflatable orange boats to rescue utility workers stranded for three hours by rising floodwaters inside a power substation.One of the Con Ed workers pulled from the floodwater, Angelo Amato, said he was part of a crew who had offered to work through the storm."This is what happens when you volunteer," he said.

New York City floods as Sandy slams into eastern US

Millions of people in the eastern United States awoke this morning to flooded homes, fallen trees and widespread power outages caused by the giant storm Sandy, which swamped New York City's subway system and submerged streets in Manhattan's financial district.At least 15 people were reported killed in the United States by Sandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the country, which dropped just below hurricane status before making landfall yesterday night in New Jersey.More than 1 million people in a dozen states were under orders to evacuate as the massive system plowed westward.One disaster forecasting company predicted economic losses could ultimately reach $20 billion, only half insured.The storm interrupted the presidential campaign a week before Election Day and closed U.S. financial markets for two days.Sandy, which was especially imposing because of its wide-ranging winds, brought a record storm surge of almost 4.2 meters to downtown Manhattan, well above the previous record of 3 meters during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.Water poured into the subway system and tunnels that course under the city, raising concerns that the world's financial capital could be hobbled for days."Hitting at high tide, the strongest surge and the strongest winds all hit at the worst possible time," said Jeffrey Tongue, a meteorologist for the weather service in Brookhaven, New York.Hurricane-force winds as high as 145 kph were recorded, he said."Hopefully it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm," Tongue said.Large sections of New York City were without power, and transportation in the metropolitan area was at a standstill."In 108 years our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now," Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota said in a statement.It could take anywhere from 14 hours to four days to get the water out of the flooded subway tunnels, the MTA said."The damage has been geographically very widespread" throughout the subway, bus and commuter train system, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said.The unprecedented flooding hampered efforts to fight a massive fire that destroyed more than 50 homes in Breezy Point, a private beach community on the Rockaway barrier island in the New York City borough of Queens, the Fire Department of New York said.Two people in New York City reportedly died in the storm a man in a house hit by a tree and a woman who stepped into an electrified puddle of water. Two other people were killed in suburban Westchester County, north of New York City, and two others were reported killed on suburban Long Island.A motor vehicle death in Massachusetts was blamed in part on the bad weather. Two other people were killed in Maryland in storm-related incidents, state authorities said, and deaths also were reported in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, CNN said.Toronto police also recorded one death a woman hit by flying debris.More than 7 million people in several states were without electricity due to the storm, which crashed ashore late on Monday near the gambling resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey.The storm was plowing westward over south-central Pennsylvania, still packing near hurricane-force winds as strong as 105 km per hour, the National Weather Service said.Wind gusts, rain and flooding were likely to extend well into Tuesday, but without the storm's earlier devastating power, said AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Dickey."Overall, the worst has past," Dickey said.The storm's wind field stretched from South Carolina north to the Canadian border and from West Virginia to a point in the Atlantic Ocean halfway to Bermuda, easily one of the largest ever seen, the National Hurricane Center said.Heavy snow fell in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains inland.Three towns in New Jersey, just west of New York, were inundated with up to 1.5 metres of water after a levee on the nearby Hackensack River was overtopped or breached, officials said. Rescuers were using boats to aid the marooned residents of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt.In New York, a crane partially collapsed and dangled precariously from a 90-story luxury apartment building under construction in Midtown Manhattan.Much of the city was deserted, as its subways, buses, commuter trains, bridges and airports were closed. Power outages darkened most of downtown Manhattan as well as Westchester County, affecting more than 650,000 customers, power company Consolidated Edison said."This is the largest storm-related outage in our history," said John Miksad, Con Ed's senior vice president for electric operations. The previous record was the more than 200,000 customers hit with outages last year during Hurricane Irene, the utility said.Neighborhoods along the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan were underwater, as were low-lying streets in Battery Park near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood.A security guard at 7 World Trade Center, Gregory Baldwin, was catching some rest in his car after laboring overnight against floodwaters that engulfed a nearby office building."The water went inside up to here," he said, pointing to his chest. "The water came shooting down from Battery Park with the gusting wind."Power and back-up generators failed at New York University Hospital, forcing patients to be moved elsewhere for care.In Lower Manhattan, firefighters used inflatable orange boats to rescue utility workers stranded for three hours by rising floodwaters inside a power substation.One of the Con Ed workers pulled from the floodwater, Angelo Amato, said he was part of a crew who had offered to work through the storm."This is what happens when you volunteer," he said.With a week to go before the election, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney canceled scheduled campaign events. Obama left the campaign trail to return to Washington to monitor the storm and Romney curtailed political events to show respect for the storm's victims.U.S. stock markets were set to be closed today. They closed yesterday for the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.The federal government in Washington was closed for a second day today, and schools were shut up and down the East Coast. Sandy killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding U.S. coastal areas.