SANDY CAUSES ELECTION DAY WOES New Yorkers helped re-elect President Barack Obama last week, but not without some technical difficulties. The damages wrought on the city by Hurricane Sandy prompted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to issue an order that residents who had evacuated their homes could vote at any poll site in the state 
This week power returned downtown, kids went back to school and the crane dangling 74 stories above West 57th Street was secured. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, however, New York City is far from fixed. More than 70,000 residents remained without power on Monday. The inundated Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown tunnels remained closed. Ruined homes 
It’s been an exhausting couple of weeks. You were evacuated. You lost power – in all senses of the word – for so long that you debated eating your pumpkin-scented candle and only source of light or heat. You saw cars floating by and started imagining yourself with the Waterworld-inspired cornrows of Spring Break 1996. 
Their offices were flooded, their phones were down and the power has been out, but that hasn’t stopped lawmakers in Zone A from helping their constituents. Legislators who use social media to inform their constituents of events and accomplishments posted prolific messages about their relief work, provided updates on their appeals for help from responders 
In 2005, writer Aaron Naparstek wrote a cover story for New York Press, asking the Office of Emergency Management and meteorologists – what will happen when the inevitable monster hurricane hits New York City? The answers he got at the time have proven to be eerily prescient in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which has wreaked 
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, downtown residents are still facing flooded streets and homes, no power and a devastating recovery that will likely take weeks if not months. Reporter Amy Eley ventured into Lower Manhattan to survey the damage. We’ll be updating with more photos and reports from the neighborhood. 
