Thousands more National Guard troops have been deployed to assist in states all along the East Coast, including some that the president has formally declared a major disaster zone.

There are nearly 7,500 soldiers and airmen deployed with the National Guard as of early Monday morning, working relief and cleanup efforts Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, D.C., North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia. More than 85,000 are now available for deployment.

President Barack Obama declared on Monday major disaster areas for New York City and the surrounding area and for coastal New Jersey, where some estimates indicate more millions are without power.

In a press conference Monday evening, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie said relief efforts for those trapped in coastal areas would begin at 7 a.m. Tuesday. He chastised local leaders, particularly Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford, who Christie said defied the his orders for all citizens to evacuate from the coasts.

The governor said he would not deploy search and rescue teams until the storm had quelled. Learn more about Christie’s conference, including his praise of Obama, here.

Check out conditions inside the shelters in New Jersey where National Guard troops are assisting evacuees:



On Saturday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta appointed dual status commanders to oversee the integration of local and federal relief efforts. Learn more about this position and how it is designed to avoid catastrophes like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina here.

They are:

-N.J.: Brig. Gen. James Grant, Army National Guard
-N.H.: Brig. Gen. Carolyn Protzmann, Air National Guard
-Mass.: Brig. Gen. Paul Smith, Army National Guard
-N.Y.: Brig. Gen. Michael Swezy, Army National Guard
-Md.: Brig. Gen. Timothy Gowen, Air National Guard
-R.I.: Brig. Gen. Mark Jannitto, Air National Guard

National Guard troops will be operating in Washington, D.C., for the next week, according to the Defense Department.

Roughly 150 members of the D.C. National Guard will provide emergency hurricane aid response starting Tuesday, as well as helping with street closures, damage assessment and directing traffic.

The D.C. government has asked the Guard to continue its work through Nov. 4.

The troops will work out of medium tactical trucks and Humvees under the direction of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

Housing Recovery Could be Humbled By Sandy

The recovery in the real estate that’s taken hold over the past year faces serious setbacks in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which barreled through the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states Monday and Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

The historic storm caused massive flooding and battered homes in Eastern coastal states, which account for about 20 percent of U.S. home sales, according to Bloomberg. As a result, lenders have suspended business and for-sale signs have been removed from properties in the Hurricane’s path.

“We’ll definitely see lower numbers in new sales and new applications,” David Stevens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association, told Bloomberg. “We do expect to see lenders put a freeze on properties across the Northeast on the shoreline until they can be inspected and assessed for damages.”

The extent of the damage is not currently known, but analytics firm CoreLogic estimated about 300,000 properties valued at almost $90 million were at risk along the eastern seaboard from Virginia to New York..

Hurricane Sandy has claimed the lives of at least 20 people in the United States, one woman in Canada, and 65 people in the Caribbean.

According to a report from Business Insider, the majority of the deaths are in New York (8) and eastern Pennsylvania (3). Deaths have also been reported in New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Connecticut. One crew member is reported dead and one missing from the sunken HMS Bounty.

According to City News in Toronto, Canada, a woman there was also killed after a Staples sign came loose in the wind and fell on her.

The Caribbean has suffered by far the most deaths from Sandy, with ABC News reporting that 65 people were killed there by the storm, mostly from flooding. More than 50 of the deaths were in Haiti.

Hurricane Sandy could ultimately make for $30 to $50 billion in economic losses, according to an estimate released this morning from economic analysis and forecasting firm IHS Global Insight. The result could be a significant dent in 4th-quarter economic output.

“Suppose that the affected regions lose just 25% of their overall output for two days that is not recoverable later. That would knock about $25 billion annualized ($6 billion actual) off GDP, and could take as much as 0.6 percentage points off annualized fourth-quarter real GDP growth rate.” write IHS economists Gregory Daco and Nigel Gault.

Spending on hurricane preparation and repair will ultimately offset some of Sandy’s economic costs. However, when people spent days standing in line at grocery and hardware stores and hunkering down, they weren’t spending recreationally, meaning that businesses like restaurants could see worse losses.

Filling up the car could also get more expensive, say IHS economists, as nearly 70 percent of East Coast refineries shut down for Sandy, which could mean a shortage of refined oil products.
IHS economists expect Sandy’s total damage costs to outstrip the roughly $15 billion in damage created by last year’s Hurricane Irene. However, Sandy won’t be as devastating as 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, which created around $120 billion in property damage--not to mention causing over 1,800 casualties.

Photos: Cleaning Up From the Superstorm

As of late Monday morning, roughly 7,400 National Guard troops were activated to support relief efforts under the command of governors from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. These forces are working with local first responders and FEMA staff.

Four utility helicopters and four search and rescue planes at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., are standing by to support FEMA missions along the New England coast.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is helping in areas that need help mitigating damage and storm surges, establishing temporary emergency power and other coastal preparations. FEMA anticipates these teams will also help with managing debris, assessing infrastructure, temporary roofing, water planning and establishing temporary housing.

The Corps is also working with the New York District Emergency Operations Center and the Rock Island District Unwatering Task force to determine how to employ pumps to address the flooded areas in New York.

The hybrid storm that has killed 38 Americans and left 8 million in the dark this week could be among the most expensive hurricanes to ever hit the U.S., according to estimates by companies that predict the insurance claims and economic consequences of natural disasters.

Hurricane Sandy could cost as much as $20 billion in economic damage and $5 billion in insured losses, according to Eqecat, a catastrophe modeling firm. The company estimated last year’s Hurricane Irene resulted in $4.5 billion in insurance losses.

“Recent events have demonstrated a pattern that approximately half of the economic damages are covered by private insurance companies, with the remainder covered by NFIP or uninsured and borne by the property owners,” Eqecat said in a release. “Based upon this pattern, insured losses could be $5 billion.”

That would make Hurricane Sandy the 10th-most expensive storm ever, using insurance losses as the primary cost indicator.

Economic losses, which are costs that aren’t reimbursed by insurance companies, are more likely to exceed current costs estimates. These include the lost costs such as business interruption -- like potential weeks of renovation of New York subways (which could cost as much as $55 billion to repair) and the 18,000 flights that were cancelled because of Sandy.

Many of the costs of natural disasters are covered by the federal government. The National Flood Insurance Program covers the costs of homeowners’ flood damages, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency covers 75 percent of immediate cleanup costs. President Obama authorized federal aid for New York and New Jersey Tuesday afternoon.

National Hurricane Center 5 p.m. Sandy advisory:

Post tropical cyclone Sandy continues to weaken over Pennsylvania. It’s now 50 ENE of Pittsburgh, Pa. with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. Storm warnings remainin effect over portions of the Great Lakes. Gale warnings are in effect along portions of the Mid-Atlantic and northeast coast

Flood and coastal flood watches, warnings, and advisories are in effect over portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.

Blizzard warnings remain in effect along the higher elevations of the central Appalachians. Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories remain in effect for extreme western Maryland and southwestward into eastern Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, and extreme western North Carolina.

HMS Bounty UPDATE: One of Sandy’s first casualties yesterday was the HMS Bounty, a three-masted ship that sank in the waters off North Carolina (see photo below). After the Bounty began taking on water early Monday morning, its 16 crew members donned cold survival suits and abandoned ship, boarding twin 25-foot life rafts. U.S. Coast Guard helicopters initially rescued 14 of the crew. Rescuers later found Claudene Christian, 42, late yesterday. She was unresponsive and declared dead.

The other missing crew member, Robin Walbridge, the ship’s 62-year-old captain, remains unaccounted for. Coast Guard rescue crews are continuing to search for Walbridge, who went overboard when the Bounty capsized amid the storm’s high waves