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European Pressphoto Agency Commuters wait in line to board buses to Manhattan outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Nov. 1.
Tens of millions of people in the Northeast U.S. confronted traffic, gas lines and patchy public transit Thursday after Sandy's destructive passage, while many others sought only to create a semblance of modern life without electricity, running water and hot showers.
The number of deaths attributed to Sandy rose late Wednesday to at least 72, nearly half in New York City, as authorities identified new victims in flooded homes and vehicles. Millions of households and businesses remained without power Thursday, and authorities warned it could take a week or more to restore service for many.
Get real-time updates on flooding, forecasts, closures and more as Sandy closes in on the U.S. East Coast. Go to the Live Stream. .
Floodwaters lingered in coastal communities from southern New Jersey to eastern Connecticut. In Hoboken, N.J., a city of about 50,000 across the Hudson River from Manhattan, thousands of residents were stranded in apartment buildings cut off from help by streets waist-high in contaminated water.
However, across the battered regions, states and communities notched progress on the slow path back to normal life.
All three major New York airports opened again after closing for the storm.
Millions were still without power and many coastal towns struggled to dig out from the debris and damage Wednesday after megastorm Sandy's march of destruction claimed at least 55 lives in the U.S. in one of the largest storms ever to strike the East Coast. Aaron Rutkoff has details on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty Images.
LaGuardia reopened Thursday on a limited schedule. Its bigger international counterparts, Kennedy and Newark Liberty, had already reopened on a limited basis.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the first plane landing at LaGuardia was a Delta Air Lines flight out of Syracuse.
Spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said Kennedy and Newark should be at full operations tomorrow.
In New Jersey, which bore the brunt of the storm, the cleanup of miles of shorefront ripped apart by Sandy has just begun.
Most of the state's mass transit systems remained shut down, leaving hundreds of thousands of commuters braving clogged highways and quarter-mile lines at gas stations. Atlantic City's casinos remained closed. Governor Chris Christie postponed Halloween until Monday, saying trick-or-treating wasn't safe in towns with flooded and darkened streets, fallen trees and downed power lines.
Sandy Hits East Coast
Adam Hunger/Reuters Firefighters rescued residents in Little Ferry, N.J., Tuesday.
New York's Blackout Skyline
Compare New York's usual skyline with its blackout skyline
Farther north in Hoboken, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, nearly 20,000 residents remained stranded in their homes, amid accusations that officials have been slow to deliver food and water. One man blew up an air mattress and floated to City Hall, demanding to know why supplies hadn't gotten out. At least one-fourth of the city's residents are flooded and 90 percent are without power.
On New York's Long Island, bulldozers scooped sand off streets and tow trucks hauled away destroyed cars, while residents tried to find a way to their homes to restart their lives.
In Connecticut, commuter rail service between Stamford and New York's Grand Central Station restarted, but the first trip after Sandy was plagued by delays and other troubles.
Passengers left Stamford early Thursday morning. Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said train service was delayed because not all tracks were in service and other storm-related problems.
Mel Evans/Associated Press GAS LINES: People across the region have been waiting to buy fuel for generators. Many gas stations are closed because they have no power. Above, the scene at a New Jersey Turnpike service area near Woodbridge.
However, passengers are riding for free. Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo authorized the Metropolitan Transit Authority to waive fares Thursday and Friday to help ease recovery from the storm.
Shore Line East commuter rail service, between New Haven and New London, also was set to resume Thursday morning.
Amtrak says it also will resume limited service between New Haven and Springfield, Mass.
In Manhattan, it was slow going as commuters attempted to return to business as usual, on a hobbled transportation system and amid high-occupancy rules requiring three or more passengers in vehicles entering the city.
In Brooklyn, where limited bus service has resumed, thousands of people lined up at the Barclays Center to get on Manhattan-bound buses, many for their first day back to work.
WSJ reporters captured scenes of destruction from around the East Coast of the U.S. on Wednesday in the wake of superstorm Sandy. Via #WorldStream.
See Related Video on #WorldStream
However, the crowds awaiting transportation spurred some residents to opt instead for their own steam. Teresa Barrow decided to walk to her first day back since Sandy hit. Ms. Barrow, 38 years old, has been working from home at her job as an information-technology specialist in Manhattan.
"I'd rather walk than deal with this," she said as she headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge. "The lines are wrapped around. It is going to take two hours just to get in."
In midtown, the city's Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station were unusually quiet as some commuter train lines bringing passengers from Long Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and elsewhere struggled to resume parts of service.
In Penn Station, New Jersey Transit's waiting concourse was sealed off behind a metal grate and Amtrak facilities were roped off with plastic tape. The subway turnstiles and gates that ordinarily disgorge thousands of passengers into the station from the 1, 2, and 3 lines on the Seventh Avenue subway were quiet. Those subways have resumed only as far as Times Square.
Long Island Rail Road riders described different train conditions depending on where they boarded. The train was "packed" when Peter Pergolis boarded in Mineola, he said. Chris Robinson, 41 years old, a paralegal from Kew Gardens, said his train was only lightly filled, though tightly jammed trains from Jamaica passed by as he waited.
The fare holiday improved travelers' moods, Mr. Robinson said — that and resuming something like a normal routine after the disruption of Sandy.
The train engineer smiled and waved pulling into the station, Mr. Robinson said. Passengers weren't griping about the limited service, he said. "Everyone's kind of stunned still," he said. "Just happy to be out of the house."
Nancy Garfinkel, arriving minutes later on a Port Washington branch train, said she felt "grateful," when her train, which was crowded with passengers, crossed over the traffic-jammed Long Island Expressway. "We saw it looked like a parking lot, and I said to myself, 'I'm very happy,'" she said.
Passengers were still cutting the MTA some slack because of the devastation of the storm. "There was no complaining," Ms. Garfinkel said. "Like they say, when New York gets in a tough situation, everyone gets really pleasant and understanding."
As New York began to recover from superstorm Sandy, commuters trying to get to work without subway service faced hours of traffic jams. WSJ's Kate Linebaugh reports via #WorldStream.
Meanwhile, New York City said it is all systems go for Sunday's marathon. Race organizers were still trying to assess how widespread damage from Superstorm Sandy might affect plans, including getting runners into the city and transporting them to the start line on Staten Island. Easing their worries a bit was news that 14 of the city's 23 subway lines were expected to be operating by Thursday morning—though none below 34th Street, an area that includes the terminal for the ferries that go to the island.
"I think some people said you shouldn't run the marathon," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news briefing. "There's an awful lot of small businesses that depend on these people. We have to have an economy. There's lots of people that have come here. It's a great event for New York, and I think for those who were lost, you've got to believe they would want us to have an economy and have a city go on for those that they left behind."
Meanwhile, celebrities pitched in to help with relief efforts.
Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, both from hard-hit New Jersey, will perform at a benefit concert for Superstorm Sandy victims.
Billy Joel of New York's Long Island, also badly damaged by the storm, is also scheduled to appear at the concert Friday.
NBC's telecast will benefit the American Red Cross.
Other performers include Christina Aguilera, Sting and Jimmy Fallon.
The telethon will be broadcast from NBC facilities in Rockefeller Center in New York City.
—Ted Mann, Kate Linebaugh, the Associated Press contributed to this article. Write to Ben Casselman at ben.casselman@wsj.com
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