adminThe worst damage was in the New York area, the most densely populated stretch of land in the country.
At least 18 people were killed in the city, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The storm also caused widespread damage in neighbouring New Jersey, where homes and businesses along the coast sustained extensive damage.
More than two million households in New Jersey lost power — twice the impact of Hurricane Irene, the storm which battered the East Coast last year.
Nationwide, some eight million homes were without electricity, and more than one million people were still under evacuation orders.
More than 40 storm-related deaths were reported across the states of Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Sandy had already killed more than 60 people in the Caribbean in the past week.
Federal government offices in Washington, which was spared the worst of the storm, were closed for a second day on Tuesday, and schools up and down the coast remained closed.
Parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have been declared “disaster zones”, meaning more relief funds will be available to help those states recover.
In West Virginia, up to 60cm of snow fell in mountainous areas, and a blizzard warning for more than a dozen counties remained in effect.
Brandon Williams, a resident of Elkins, said the situation there was “crazy”.
“You can’t go nowhere,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Trees in the road. The interstate’s shut down. Not much you can do . . . They got about four tractor-trailers jack knifed on that mountain and two of them are side by side.”
The National Hurricane Centre said Sandy came ashore as a “post-tropical cyclone”, meaning it still packed hurricane-force winds but lost the characteristics of a tropical storm. — Al Jazeera
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