Lower Manhattan remains dark after an explosion at a Con Ed electrical plant caused a wide-spread blackout after Hurricane Sandy pounded the city on October 30, 2012. The super storm devastated many parts of the eastern seaboard, leaving thousands homeless and damaging mass transportation systems.

Storm surges ripped away the ground floor of a luxury beach house.

A police officer guards at the Bowling Green subway station which remains closed after storm surges flooded platforms and tunnels, causing a city-wide shutdown of the transit system.

Large sections of boardwalk were ripped from their foundations and washed up against residential buildings in Rockaway Beach.

The second story of a house rests on the street after intense storm surges swept away the ground floor in Staten Island.

A statue of the Virgin Mary stands among the charred debris where over a hundred houses burned to the ground in the community of Breezy Point on the Rockaway Peninsula. Intense storm winds fueled the fire while high water made it difficult for firemen to contain the blaze.

Jeanette Donnelly looks on as Patrick Landers sifts through the debris of where her house once stood.

Women hang up a flag that was undamaged by the fire that brought down their home.

Boys check out the damage left by the storm which inundated their neighborhood of Rockaway Beach.

Storm surges tossed around parked cars and covered the streets with a deep layer of sand and tide pools in Bell Harbor.

A woman walks past where a row of stores once stood before burning to the ground during the storm.

A Red Cross van passes by the piles of water-damaged household items that have been set out on the curb as residents gut their water damaged homes.

Record-high tides carried a boat onto the middle of Cross Bay Blvd. in Howard Beach. Some locals began referring to the vessel as the "S.S.Minnow," a name borrowed from the TV show "Gilligan's Island."

A mother and daughter huddle under blankets that were donated by the New York City Marathon as they have a free, hot meal at a relief center set up to help victims displaced from their homes. Due to the city-wide devastation left by the storm the Marathon was canceled and blankets intended for runners were instead donated to the local residents.

People wait in line for free food that is being distributed to those without power due to the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

Volunteers distribute military rations to residents.  Along with not being able to cook at home nearby grocery stores and restaurants remained closed due to the blackout.

People line up to purchase gas in Brooklyn. Gas stations throughout the region run dry as the seaports remain closed making it impossible for tankers to resupply the fuel terminals.

People wait in long lines to fill gasoline containers in Brooklyn.

A partially collapsed crane dangles from a 90-story building after intense winds blew the crane's boom backwards in Midtown.