Sandy’s aftermath leaves N.J. residents in a dismal waiting game for power, gas

For millions of people, power is still out; the nights are getting colder.

Gas is nearly impossible to find in many areas and where there is gas, you have to wait in line for hours to get it.

There was tension, tension everywhere. Some gas stations called in the police to stand watch over angry customers.

 Many streets remained impassible, schools shuttered, businesses were still closed and new deaths were being reported — not from the storm, but the deadly fumes of emergency generators running nonstop throughout the night in so many darkened neighborhoods.

  Four days after Hurricane Sandy devastated New Jersey, the state is still in dire crisis. And if things weren’t bad enough, another storm is on the way.

 More than 1.7 million customers in New Jersey on Thursday remained without power — down from over 2.7 million at the height of the outages. But restoration remained slow and frustrating to many.

 Immediate forecasts call for colder weather, with temperatures at night going into the lower 40s and upper 30s this weekend.

Throughout the state, the quest to find gasoline became a desperate search for much of the day. With no power, many gas stations remain closed. And with roads closed, many stations that are able to pump have not been able to get gas deliveries.

 Bumper-to-bumper cars, trucks and SUVs stretched from the New Jersey Turnpike rest areas, taking up right lanes for more than a mile in some places. Where open and functioning gas stations could be found, people were waiting for two hours or more. Some much more. 

In the north of the state, the flooding in hard-hit Hoboken — submerged by a tremendous storm surge — finally receded Thursday, but thousands of city residents and businesses only began to recover from the damage.

Point Pleasant man finds benefit to sand left by Hurricane Sandy Point Pleasant man finds benefit to sand left by Hurricane Sandy For the first time since Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, Point Pleasant resident Art Phillips took out his trusty metal detector and hit the beach. Phillips says the new sand circulated by the hurricane offers loads of new trinkets. In just an hour and a half he found a gold ring and about 200 coins. (Video by Michael Monday/The Star-Ledger) Watch video

 NJ Transit buses were back on the road, at least where the roads were open. Officials said they will be providing some rail service in state on the Northeast Corridor Line between Trenton and Newark Penn Station, the Raritan Valley Line between Raritan and Newark, and a small portion of the North Jersey Coast Line between Woodbridge and Newark this morning.

  Subways also started running again in parts of New York City, where Con Edison said was on track to restore power by Saturday in Manhattan.

 Still, there was more bad news in the forecast. Another nor’easter could hit the Mid-Atlantic and New England next week, the National Weather Service warned Thursday — as early as Tuesday.

While forecast models said the potential storm would have nowhere near the impact of Hurricane Sandy — and might not develop at all — it could bring more wind, rain and even some inland snow Tuesday night and Wednesday, hampering recovery efforts and cause some further beach erosion along the coast.