RAW VIDEO: Manhattan Bellevue Hospital Under Water

The death toll from superstorm Sandy has risen to 43 in the United States and Canada, and is expected to climb further as several people remain missing. Images of Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, which is flooded by storm water.

Published

7 months ago

Categories

US

Topics

United States

Places

United States of America, New York City, New York, Toronto

Transcript

SHOTLIST: NEW YORK, OCT 30, 2012, SOURCE: AFPTV SOUNDBITE 1 Bill Lecomples (man), supervisor electrician, Bellevue Hospital Center (English, 15 sec): "This is the oldest public hospital in the country, Bellevue Hospital, and we've been inundated with storm water from the hurricane. The fire department is assisting us in dewatering." SOUNDBITE 2 Bill Lecomples (man), supervisor electrician, Bellevue Hospital Center (English, 11 sec): "Due to the flooding in the basement we lost a lot of power and we lost the elevators. So the fire department also helped us evacuate some patients because they were in a critical condition." SOUNDBITE 3 Bill Lecomples (man), supervisor electrician, Bellevue Hospital Center (English, 9 sec): "Because right now, Con Edison, the utility is down, in this whole grid area, they're not supplying us with power. This is all emergency power running on right now." - Bill Lecomples walks outside the hospital - VAR flooded basement of Bellevue Hospital Center - VAR firetrucks - VAR firemen pumping water out ----------------------------- AFP TEXT: US-weather-storm-toll Toll from superstorm Sandy climbs to 43 NEW YORK, Oct 30, 2012 (AFP) - The death toll from superstorm Sandy has risen to 43 in the United States and Canada, and was expected to climb further as several people remained missing, officials said Tuesday. Officials in the states of Connecticut, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia all reported deaths from the massive storm system, while Toronto police said a Canadian woman was killed by flying debris. Sandy had already killed at least 67 people -- including a US national in Puerto Rico -- as it swept through the Caribbean over the past few days, meaning the overall toll from the storm is now 110. The total deaths in New York state spiked to 23, after New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said at least 18 people had been killed in the Big Apple alone. "Tragically we expect that number to go up," Bloomberg warned. Three people died in New Jersey, including two parents who were killed when a falling tree crushed their car, sparing their children aged 11 and 14 who were inside with them, Governor Chris Christie said. Christie added that rescue operations were still under way, with three separate teams deployed in Atlantic City, the coastal casino town near where the storm made landfall at 0000 GMT Tuesday. Another four people were killed in Pennsylvania, including one killed from a falling tree and another when a house collapsed, emergency management officials told AFP. Connecticut Emergency Management spokesman Scott Devico reported four storm-related deaths in his state. Governor Dan Malloy earlier said that one of the dead was a firefighter. Two storm-related deaths were reported in North Carolina, including a woman on board a replica of the HMS Bounty who was plucked from the sea Monday and later died at hospital. The captain was still missing Tuesday after the tall ship went down off the coast of North Carolina. North Carolina's State Highway Patrol also reported that a driver slammed into a tree Monday evening and died on the spot. A vehicle driver and his passenger were killed in the Virginia state capital of Richmond in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, city police said. Three storm-related deaths were reported in Maryland, Ed McDonough with the state Emergency Management Agency told AFP. Two were killed in vehicle-related accidents, while a third died when he was crushed by a tree that fell into his home. And in West Virginia, a 48-year-old woman was killed when her car collided with a cement truck while driving through heavy snow caused by the storm, a local official said. The National Hurricane Center said Sandy had weakened early Tuesday as it moved inland, but could still generate gale-force winds and flooding along the Eastern Seaboard. US authorities had warned the threat to life and property was "unprecedented" and ordered hundreds of thousands of residents from New England to North Carolina to evacuate their homes and seek shelter. Falling trees dragged down power cables, plunging millions of homes into darkness, while storm warnings cut rail links and marooned tens of thousands of travelers at airports across the region. Disaster estimating firm Eqecat forecast that the massive storm would affect more than 60 million Americans, a fifth of the population, and cause up to $20 billion (15 billion euros) in damage. END