Reece Hiner, 11, looks at a home in Pasadena, Md., where the homeowner was killed when a tree crashed through as Sandy hit the East Coast. Associated Press

NEW YORK—All that was left Wednesday of Glenda Moore's flight from Sandy's rising waters was a blue Ford Explorer, its windows broken to reveal two sand-caked children's car seats.

Hours earlier, at the height of the storm, Ms. Moore's two young sons, Connor, 4 years old, and Brendan, 2, were swept from her arms in the Staten Island borough of New York City after the big vehicle became trapped on a flooded road and she unbuckled them from the seats to head for dry land, she later told police.

On Thursday, search crews discovered the bodies of boys, police said. They were found about 15 to 20 yards away from each other, near where Ms. Moore lost her grip on her children.

The medical examiner's office will determine the cause of death, but police suspect drowning.

Latest Updates on Sandy


Sandy Hits East Coast


New York's Blackout Skyline

Compare New York's usual skyline with its blackout skyline

Until Wednesday, the majority of reported deaths were from storm-related car accidents and falling trees, including a couple from Mendham Township, N.J., who died Monday night when a tree crushed them when they got out of their vehicle. Their 11- and 14-year-old children remained inside and were uninjured. On Wednesday night, two sisters in Newark, ages 18 and 19, were found dead in their apartment from carbon monoxide poisoning, likely from deadly fumes from a generator in their home, according to city police.

Several of the newly identified bodies apparently fell victim to the storm's raging floodwaters that rushed into homes across the region.

New York police reported that a neighbor found the body of Hugh Senpo, 87, lying face down in a living room underwater in his Coney Island, Brooklyn, home on Tuesday afternoon. Later that day, near midnight, the body of Anna Gesso, 62, was found floating in the basement of a home on Staten Island.

In Newark, N.J., a 47-year-old man was found drowned inside his vehicle Tuesday afternoon as a result of Sandy, city officials said. An initial investigation by the Newark police found that the man had perished in his car the night before and was discovered Tuesday after high waters subsided.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that at least 30 of the total deaths occurred in the city, a number that authorities expected would climb as crews sift through the wreckage Sandy left behind.

A spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner of New York City said on Wednesday that autopsies were being done to determine the exact causes of death but she expected that the vast majority would be attributed to drowning.

In Staten Island on Wednesday, neighbors of the Moore family tried to make sense of what had become of the boys who they said liked to ride toy cars down the block. Their father, sanitation worker Damien Moore, had set up a swimming pool in the back yard over the summer, but the youngest boy didn't like water, said neighbor Ms. Malizia, 63 years old.

Firefighters search for missing people in the New York City borough of Staten Island in Sandy's aftermath. Bloomberg News

Ms. Malizia called the couple good parents and said they had lived in the home on Nash Court for about five years and were planning a move to Brooklyn, having recently listed the home with a local real estate company.

Police said the boys' mother was fleeing her home, two blocks outside an evacuated area, after losing power and taking on water Monday evening. Several neighbors said Wednesday the first floor of their homes didn't take on water though their basements did.

Ms. Moore, who neighbors said was a nurse, told police she had packed the boys into her Explorer and began driving to a relative's home in Brooklyn about 6 p.m. Monday.

She tried to drive through a flooded section of Father Capodanno Boulevard, about six miles from her home, but realized the water was too deep. She attempted to turn back and the vehicle stalled, she told authorities.

Ms. Moore told police she then grabbed her children, left the car and entered the water trying to make it to safety. But the water swelled around them, and she lost her grip on her children. Her sons were swept away, she told police.

Ms. Moore climbed over two fences and got to two homes whose residents, she said, refused to help her, according to police. Ms. Moore said she sat on a back porch until daylight when she was able to make it back to Hylan Boulevard where she flagged down the police car for assistance at approximately 7:30 a.m.

George Calbe, 62, lives a few houses down from where Ms. Moore reportedly knocked on doors looking for help. He said he was looking out his window when he saw a vehicle honking. "I heard the horn honking when the water started rising," he said. "It was right in the middle of the intersection. All of a sudden I saw the water lift it up and push it. It sucked it in like a vacuum cleaner."

Mr. Calbe then lost sight of it. The next morning he said he saw Ms. Moore exit a police vehicle and begin shouting at the corner house, "I asked you to help me."

On the other end of Staten Island, in an area that had been ordered to evacuate, a 13-year-old girl was another young victim. Firefighters found the body of Angela Dresch, dressed in her pajamas, beneath a pile of rubble more than a block away from her home in the Tottenville section late Monday.

An official said her home, which sat just half a block away from the Raritan Bay, was destroyed, apparently by a strong wave described to authorities by witnesses as a "mini Tsunami."

Her mother, Patricia Dresch, 46, was later found at Staten Island University Hospital unconscious and was listed in critical condition, the official said. Her father, George Dresch, a 55-year-old who owns a plumbing business in Brooklyn, was still missing as of Wednesday, the official said.

—Cameron McWhirter,
Heather Haddon and
Tamer El-Ghobashy
contributed to this article.

Write to Dionne Searcey at and Sean Gardiner at