5:48PM EST November 4. 2012 - NEW YORK — As the city braced for the start of the first full workweek since superstorm Sandy, officials on Sunday warned residents to be prepared for continuing mass transit glitches, gasoline shortages and other problems.
Some places "look like things are back to normal," said W. Craig Fugate, the Federal Emergency Management Agency chief who joined New York state and city officials at planning meetings and a tour of storm-devastated communities along the Queens oceanfront.
But he warned the recovery "will not be done in months" and "will not be done in a year."
Much of New York City's mass transit system is up and running, with at least partial service restored in most neighborhoods across the five boroughs. The commuter rails that link Manhattan with Long Island, the northern suburbs and New Jersey also have resumed varying levels of train service.
"This is not to say that service will be normal tomorrow," said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the still-recovering transit system will be strained by extra riders Monday as public schools reopen for the first time since the storm and motorists trying to conserve gas climb aboard trains and subways. He called on riders to be patient as they cope with what are likely to be longer-than-normal waits and crowded train cars.
For instance, the storm badly damaged the Broad Channel crossing that normally carries the subway system's A train to and along the Rockaway peninsula on the Queens oceanfront. During what's likely to be a lengthy rebuilding effort, Cuomo said a subway train would be disassembled, trucked to the Rockaways and reassembled there to provide limited mass transit in the area during the rebuilding.
"We are in uncharted territory here bringing the system back," said Joseph Lhota, chief of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that coordinates the region's subways, buses and trains.
The number of metro area filling stations that had both electricity and gas has increased, said Cuomo, easing the hours-long lines and waits over the last few days as drivers tried – often unsuccessfully – to gas up.
Logistics officials from the federal Department of Defense have identified approximately 120 gas stations around the region that will be provided with gas supplies, electrical generators or both as soon as Sunday night, said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY. That effort should help increase gas availability until the private-market supply system moves back to normal, he said.
"There will be more of a supply of gasoline, and there will be more distribution," said Cuomo, who urged motorists to avoid gas hoarding and limit driving to vital trips.
Communicating recovery and aid information to areas still without electricity – specifically to the 730,000 customers Cuomo said had no power as of Sunday morning – has proved to be a major challenge. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said city emergency workers were now printing leaflets with the vital information and distributing them by hand in darkened and devastated communities.
