after sandy, lower manhattan limps back to life

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPERSTORM_LOWER_MANHATTAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-11-26-03-14-21


In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 photo, a worker wearing protective clothing, behind window, works inside the Heartland Brewery at New York's South Street Seaport, as bags of garbage from the Superstorm Sandy cleanup sit out front. The South Street Seaport, a popular tourist destination, remains a ghost town since the storm. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

NEW YORK (AP) -- The hum of massive mobile generators, boilers and pumps emerges blocks from Manhattan's Financial District and turns into a steady din south of Wall Street - the now-familiar sound of an area laboring to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

Other parts of the city have gotten mayoral visits and media attention after the Oct. 29 storm killed dozens of residents and tore apart homes in coastal neighborhoods. Less obvious were the millions upon million gallons of sea water that wreaked havoc on subterranean electrical panels and other internal infrastructure throughout lower Manhattan, making them unusable even after power was restored to the area.

"There were waves on Wall Street, and it all ended up here," Mike Lahm, a building engineer who rode out the storm at 120 Wall Street, said during a recent tour of the skyscraper's basement.

Nearly a month later, some of the high-rises that are home to investment banks, large law firms and luxury apartments have bounced back quickly. But others buildings remain eerily dark and vacant.

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