America is now mourning the loss of at least 80 lives taken by Hurricane Sandy, including those of two boys swept from their mother’s arms. The pictures of the destruction of Staten Island are staggering, and the city’s marathon has been cancelled because Mayor Bloomberg accepted that it would, after all, have diverted resources from the recovery. The world has gawped at images of water flooding New York’s underground, yellow cabs floating down the street, housing estates flattened, skyscrapers darkened and evacuated and, now, people queuing for petrol. We can expect such images to dominate the news headlines here, there is no shortage of genuine horror stories. But as I said in my Telegraph column yesterday, the bigger story is that of New York’s resilience and the pace of its recovery.
A 108-year-old subway system that had been deluged with saltwater is already roaring back to life. The Brooklyn-Battery tunnel had 86 million gallons of water, which is now being sucked out by the US Army (who have a special flooded tunnel unit). Flooded
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