New York City gets back to business after Irene

New York City was slowly getting back to business as usual today after Hurricane Irene but hundreds of thousands of people who normally travel in from the surrounding area faced a hellish commute as flooding knocked out some transit routes.

Downgraded to a tropical and then a post-tropical storm, Irene pelted eastern Canada with rain and 50-mile-per-hour (80-kph) winds late yesterday after killing 20 people in the United States. It cut power to 5 million homes and businesses and choked towns with floodwaters, especially in Vermont and New Jersey.

New York subways and air travel at major airports slowly started to resume service but there were expected to be delays and overcrowding and commuter rail services feeding the city from the north and from New Jersey were out indefinitely.

Those who could avoid public transport seemed to be resorting to driving. Traffic was unusually heavy on Manhattan's West Side Highway in the early hours, with cars nearly bumper-to-bumper at one point.

Wall Street was largely unaffected by the storm as was Ground Zero, where the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks is soon to be observed.