Residents along the East Coast are beginning to pick up the pieces after the deadly superstorm Sandy devastated the most densely populated region in the country, with New Jersey experiencing "unthinkable" damage to its coastline as homes were swept from their foundations and amusement park rides were washed into the ocean.
President Obama will arrive in New Jersey this afternoon to survey the damage with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. President Obama declared parts of New Jersey, along with parts of New York, a major disaster area, which would allow federal funding for storm-related repairs.
More than eight million people are still without power across 17 states and Sandy is now being blamed for at least 51 deaths in the U.S. and two people missing, according to The Associated Press.
Hurricane Sandy: Full Coverage
Hundreds of thousands of people who had to evacuate their homes are left wondering what â€" if anything â€" was left. For those residents living on the New Jersey coastline, Christie described the damage as "unfathomable" and "unthinkable."
"The boardwalk we walked on together this summer greeting residents, talking to those business owners, it's gone," Christie said at a Tuesday evening press conference after surveying the damage.
Images from around the storm-affected areas depicted scenes reminiscent of big-budget disaster movies. In Atlantic City, N.J., a gaping hole remained where once a stretch of boardwalk sat by the sea.
Superstorm Sandy Wipes Out Seaside Heights, N.J
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Watch Video "It won't be same. It will be different because many of the iconic things that made it what it was are not gone and washed into the ocean," Christie said.
Christie said that he plans on speaking to Obama about getting Army Corps of Engineers into the state to begin rebuilding as soon as possible, especially the Jersey Shore.
"As a kid who was born and raised in this state and who spent a lot of time over my life, both my childhood and my adult life, at the Jersey Shore. We'll rebuild it. No question in my mind we'll rebuild it."
Seaside Heights, a city synonymous with fun, is now submerged underwater with destruction as far as the eye can see. Homes, cars and amusement park rides litter the coastline and the ocean. Timothy Husar took a picture of the submerged rollercoaster in Seaside Park that went viral on social media.
"When the tide gets really high, it's completely underwater," Husar said.
Husar said that the high tides and strong winds also pushed debris from other coastline cities toward Seaside.
"Throughout the ocean you see the northerly or southerly winds pushing debris that we suspect is from Atlantic City and the Wildwood area up towards our docks," he said.
Boat rescues continued along the storm-ravaged shore Tuesday night for those residents who did not heed the warnings and mandatory evacuation orders.
With chest pains, Tom Moriarty was taken to Atlantic City's hospital. His daughter remains at his flooded home in Brigantine, N.J.
"She said everything was fine and that if worse comes to worse, she and her boyfriend, were going to go into the attic," Moriarty said.
The number of power outages topped 1.9 million customers in New Jersey and half a million in New York City, and approached another million on New York's Long Island.
Nearly 4,000 utility workers from all areas of the country are rushing to New York to help turn on the power after much of lower Manhattan plunged into darkness and dimmed the famous skyline.
"You should not expect the vast bulk of those people that do not have service today to get service much before the weekend," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during a Tuesday press conference.
All bridges and tunnels have reopened with the Holland Tunnel and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel the only exceptions. Officials hoped to have power restored to New York in two to three days and aim to have the subways running by the weekend, Bloomberg said.
Faced with the chance of not having power for days, looting has become a problem in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, N.Y., Tuesday night.
More than 100 police officers stood on corners or cruised in cars to guard a strip of vandalized stores and a damaged bank, to the relief of shaken residents.
"We're feeling OK, but at first we felt worried," 12-year-old Oleg Kharitmov told the AP as he walked his dog with his parents by the bank. "I'm pretty happy that the cops are here."
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