Hurricane Sandy Claims At Least 50 Lives, Leaves Over 8 Million In The Dark

It was a humble acceptance of how weak the man-made scientific and technological advancements can be at the wrath of nature when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "Nature is an awful lot more powerful than we are."

Hurricane Sandy has claimed at least 50 lives and left more than 8.2 million households without power in 17 states.

Nearly 2 million of the people without power are in New York City where the entire streets remained underwater as did seven subway tunnels between Manhattan and Brooklyn at one point. Floods forced closure of the New York Stock Exchange for a second day, for the first time in 124 years. Airlines cancelled more than 15,000 flights around the world. Public transportation in New York City was completely halted as the subway system, rail yards and bus depots were flooded.

Some of the worst hit states have began crawling back to normalcy as some of New York airports, highways, tunnels and bridges reopened or are slated to be reopened in a day or two. Several airports including John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, N.Y., and Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey will be reopened by Wednesday. The New York Stock Exchange is scheduled to reopen on Wednesday and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will ring the opening bell.

Millions of people from Maine to the Carolinas woke up on Tuesday morning to see what they have been expecting, but to the worst of their fears, the storm was in its deadlines nature and continued to parade the eastern states after it made landfall near Atlantic City, N.J., and rocked states including New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia.

According to IHSGlobal Insight, a forecasting firm, Hurricane Sandy will end up causing about $20 billion in property damage and $10 billion to $30 billion more in lost business, making it one of the costliest natural disasters on record in the U.S. and could slow down the American economy's momentum in the fourth quarter.