A new storm is expected to hit the New York-New Jersey region still cleaning up after the battering from superstorm Sandy.

The latest brings the threat of 55 mph gusts and more beach erosion, flooding and rain.

Temperatures dipped toward freezing and tens of thousands of people without power along the ravaged Atlantic coastline faced the fact that they would have to find somewhere else to stay. Especially hard hit were the thousands in public housing, who often have no place to go and barricade themselves in darkened apartments for the 12 hours of night.

As more than a million students joined the morning rush hour for the first time since the storm, commuters continued to wait - and sometimes sleep - in their cars in long queues for petrol. Others packed the limited-service Long Island trains so tightly that some people could not get on.

The new storm worried the large swathes of the region that were returning to something resembling normal.



With temperatures sinking New York City workers handed out blankets and urged victims to go to overnight shelters or daytime warming centres.

But government leaders began to wonder where to find housing in the densely developed area around the largest US city for the tens of thousands whose homes could be uninhabitable for weeks or months.


