Superstorm Sandy: 33 Dead and 8 Million Customers Without Power

The wrath of superstorm Sandy killed at least 33 people in seven states and left more than 8 million customers without power.

The 33 victims, the AP reported, died as the hurricane tore through states including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia.

"This was a devastating storm, maybe the worst that we have ever experienced," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference today. Seventeen of the victims were in New York state and 10 of those were in New York City, according to the AP.

The power outages were spread over 18 states Virginia to Maine, and while the number of customers affected was 8 million, the number of people would be several times that number.

This morning, President Obama issued disaster declarations for New York and New Jersey so that federal aid will be offered to the affected areas to help supplement state and local clean-up efforts.

Sandy continued on a ferocious streak early this morning when a berm in Bergen County, N.J., was breached, resulting in four to five feet of water flowing into three towns and endangering as many as 2,000 people, said Jeanne Beratta, spokesperson for the Bergen County Office of Emergency Management.

"We're doing rescues by boat. We're doing rescues with large trucks. We're doing rescues all over those areas," Baratta told "Good Morning America." "It's going to continue all day because now we're just search and rescue."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that the state "kind of took it in the neck worse than any other place," but praised Obama and his administration for how they have handled the crisis.

"[Obama] called me last night around midnight to ask what else can be done," Christie told GMA. "I have to say, the administration, the president himself and FEMA administrator Craig Fugate have been outstanding with us so far. We have a great partnership with them and I want to thank the president personally for his personal attention to this."

In New York, the U.S. financial markets closed for a second day today, an unprecedented move for the stock exchange. In Lower Manhattan, the home of the financial district, a blowout at a Con Edison substation cut power to thousands of customers. The outage was likely the result flooding or flying debris, said John Miksad, senior vice president of electrical operations for the company.

Water flooded into parts of New York City's subway system as well as vehicle tunnels; the water even flowed into the site of the 9/11 terror attack. America's largest city was cut off from the outside world after Mayor Michael Bloomberg closed bridges and tunnels and transit systems shut down. The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel took in more than 11 feet of water, WABC reported.

Approximately 670,000 customers in New York City and Westchester County were without power, due to factors including the explosion, outages in the overhead system and pre-emptive shutdowns.

"When we went into today, we knew the forecast was for strong winds from Sandy as well as the potential for flooding, so we had anticipated and reported to you all that we were expecting overhead outages," Miksad said.

What the company had not anticipated, he said, was the continued flooding following the peak tides.

And transportation may prove to be a problem in the Big Apple during the coming days. Superstorm Sandy flooded parts of the New York City subway system, rail yards and bus depots, creating what officials are calling the biggest disaster of its 108 years in existence.

"The New York City subway system...has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night," MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said in a statement.

It was not yet known when the city's subway system would be back up and running. The nation's largest commuter rail system was also shut down for a second day, with word expected later today on when operations may resume.

A crane is still dangling perilously over midtown Manhattan, atop a 90-story skyscraper under construction. Neighboring buildings were evacuated as the massive metal crane arm swayed in winds that gusted above 65 miles per hour.

Firefighters in Queens, N.Y., are battling a six-alarm fire that has already destroyed 50 homes, according to ABC News' New York station WABC-TV. Nearly 200 firefighters are battling the blaze and two people have suffered minor injuries. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Other parts of the coast are struggling with snow and blizzard conditions. West Virginia is under a blizzard warning and more than two feet of snow has been reported in some parts of the states. More than 100,000 customers are without power.

Superstorm Sandy also brought winter conditions from N.C. to Penn., and into Ohio.

The former hurricane had joined forces with a cold front coming from the northwest and a high pressure system from Greenland to dump snow on eight states. Davis, W.V., has been blanketed with 17 inches of snow, which continued to fall into the early morning.

By Thursday, meteorologists predict up to three feet of snow is possible in higher elevations.

In New Jersey, 2.4 million customers were without power--two-thirds of the state was blacked out and 200 state roads are closed, the governor said this morning. On Long Island, 823,920 -- 75 percent of LIPA's customers -- were in the dark.

There were nearly 640,000 customers without power in Connecticut, more than 390,000 in Virginia, almost 290,000 in Maryand and Washington, D.C., more than 68,000 in West Virginia, more than 10,000 in Massachusetts and 125,000 in New Hampshire.

Early this morning, approximately 200 patients had been evacuated by private ambulance with assistance from the FDNY.

Miksad said it was too soon to say when power could be restored and that inspectors would be out once it was daylight to assess the damage.

Although the worst of Sandy is over, high winds are expected to continue whipping through the Northeast today, but will weaken at a steady rate, according to a National Weather Service briefing at 5 a.m. EST. Maximum winds were reported to be near 65 mph.

Parts of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states remained under flash flood watches and warnings. Normally dry areas near the coast could be vulnerable to potential flooding brought on by high tide, the briefing stated.

As Sandy moves west-northwest at 15 mph, rainfall totals of four to eight inches are expected over the mid-Atlantic states, while one to three inches are possible from New York through New England, according to the National Weather Service.

Sandy was downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical storm shortly before it made landfall at 8 p.m. in Atlantic City, N.J., on Monday, however that didn't stop the superstorm from wreaking havoc.

ABC News' Max Golembo, Richard Esposito, Russell Goldman, Genevieve Shaw Brown, Molly Hunter and Serena Marshall contributed to this report.