By MARK DUELL and JILL REILLY
The scale of the devastation left by Superstorm Sandy is mounting today as the death toll continues to rise - currently 48 people across the US and Canada have been reported dead, but the final figure is expected to be significantly higher.
President Obama declared a 'major disaster' in New York and Long Island as flooded streets were littered with cars, homes were razed to the ground and tankers washed up on shore.
Battle: More than 190 firefighters have contained the six-alarm blaze fire in the Breezy Point section, but they are still putting out some pockets of fire
The President warned that Sandy 'is not yet over' and announced that he would visit New Jersey on Wednesday to visit the scenes of the destruction.
Hundreds of thousands of people are without power in New York and the transit system, schools, the stock exchange and Broadway are all out of action after a 13ft wall of water caused by the storm surge and high tides brought severe flooding to subways and road tunnels.
Washed up: A resident pushes a bicycle down a street covered in beach sand due to flooding from Superstorm Sandy in Long Beach, New York
Sandy, one of the biggest storms to ever descend on the country, hit the mainland at 6.30pm local time yesterday having laid waste to large parts of the coast during the day.
The storm that made landfall in New Jersey on Monday evening with 80mph sustained winds, cut power to more than 7.4 million homes and businesses from the Carolinas to Ohio, caused scares at two nuclear plants and stopped the presidential campaign cold.
Destruction: Cars floating after being pushed out a flooded basement in the city during last night's battering
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the death toll in the America's most populous city is up to ten - two children, aged 11 and 13, were killed instantly in the city by a falling tree. Many of the total number of victims were said to have been killed by falling trees.
Nearly 200 firefighters spent the night battling to get a blaze under control in the Queens, but over 80 homes were flattened in the fire.
Beached: A 168-foot water tanker, the John B. Caddell, sits on the shore where it ran aground on Front Street in the Stapleton neighborhood of New York's Staten Island
Fleet in the floods: Yellow cabs in a parking lot are surrounded by water after Superstorm Sandy struck Hoboken, New Jersey
Wrecked: A man looks at an uprooted tree which fell on a car when Superstorm Sandy swept through the Brooklyn borough of New York
On Wednesday, the President plans to thank first responders in New Jersey as he surveys the damage with state Governor Chris Christie, who has praised Obama’s leadership in dealing with the disaster.
Speaking from the headquarters of the Red Cross in Washington DC, Obama said that Sandy ‘is not yet over’.
Uprooted: A fallen tree at Cooper Square in the East Village, New York, after Superstorm Sandy battered the city
Warning there were still risks of flooding and downed power lines, he described the storm as ‘heartbreaking for the nation’ and, offering his thoughts and prayers to the victims, he added: ‘America is with you.’
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says it could be three days or more before power is restored to hundreds of thousands of people now in the dark.
Something in the way: A fallen tree blocks a street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the wake of Hurricane Sandy
Broken home: A man and child look in disbelief at a collapsed house in the Cosey Beach neighborhood of East Haven, Connecticut
Aftermath: A rainbow and looming clouds appear over the sky in New York's Manhattan after the hurricane stormed the city
Damaged: A building that had its facade ripped off by Hurricane Sandy - beds and radiators can be seen in the block
Gone: Deidre Duffy studies all that is left of her home at Breezy Point, in the Queens borough of New York
Toy: A doll's head can be seen among the charred remains of a house destroyed by fire in the aftermath of the post-tropical storm
Ripped from the ground: People pass a fallen tree in the Battery Park neighborhood of Manhattan
Strewn across street: Debris outside flats belonging to actress Anne Hathaway and reality star Olivia Palermo's building
Devastation: A fallen tree and power line ripped from the ground outside homes on Harvard Street in Garden City, New York
Shock: Residents look over the remains of burned homes in the Rockaways section
Extraordinary: This CCTV photo shows flood waters from Hurricane Sandy rushing in to the Hoboken PATH train station through an elevator shaft in New Jersey
source: dailymail