New storm set to follow Sandy

Temperatures dipped toward freezing and tens of thousands of people without power along the ravaged Atlantic coastline faced the fact that they would have to find somewhere else to stay.

Especially hard hit were the thousands in public housing, who often have no place to go and barricade themselves in darkened apartments for the 12 hours of night.

As more than a million students joined the morning rush hour for the first time since the storm, commuters continued to wait - and sometimes sleep - in their cars in long queues for petrol. Others packed the limited-service Long Island trains so tightly that some people could not get on.

The new storm worried the large swathes of the region that were returning to something resembling normal.

"Prepare for more outages," said National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina. "Stay indoors. Stock up again."

Sandy left more than 100 people dead in 10 states. Half a million people in New York state remained without power, and more than 800,000 were without power in New Jersey a week after the storm.

With temperatures sinking New York City workers handed out blankets and urged victims to go to overnight shelters or daytime warming centres.

But government leaders began to wonder where to find housing in the densely developed area around the largest US city for the tens of thousands whose homes could be uninhabitable for weeks or months.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 30,000 to 40,000 New Yorkers may need to be relocated - a monumental task in a city where housing is scarce and expensive - though he said that number will probably drop to 20,000 within a couple of weeks as power is restored in more places.

"We're not going to let anybody go sleeping in the streets. ... But it's a challenge, and we're working on it," he said.

One option is setting up Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer camps of the kind that existed after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.