NYC flooded by record storm surge

>>> we want to go to the tip, battery park . this storm didn't have a four or five attached to it, it has a relatively casual name, and yet they've proven it had the lowest center of pressure ever reported of any storm in our hemisphere?

>> reporter: and it sure packed a wallop here in new york city . 8 million people share 400 square miles in new york city . they are a tough resilient bunch. this storm showed even the most prepared, that they weren't prepared enough. even new york bowed to the furious power of nature. gusts at 57 miles an hour ripped the face off this building as sandy's winds and rain tour through the city. a record storm surge , almost 14 feet filled lower manhattan , filling the brooklyn/ battery tunnel with water. floodwaters shorting out this con ed substation. three quarters of a million new yorkers lost electricity.

>> we're congregated around a radio trying to get information, no one has power, no one has internet.

>> it's amazing. cars are completely destroyed, they were submerged under water. i mean, i -- i'm floored by what happened.

>> reporter: no borough was spared, from this oil tanker beached on staten island to a beach community in queens.

>> this is a massive storage unit from a construction site. it floated over here or was blown over here. get this, all the way from across the street. you see those other containers that are there right now.

>> reporter: the mayor said this may be the worst storm in the city's history.

>> the damage we suffered across the city is extensive and it will not be repaired overnight.

>> reporter: the subway system that carries 4 million people is flooded and could take days to repair. water damage for laguardia's runways will keep it closed at least another day. and the crane still dangles, keeping streets down below blocked off. the water toppled streetlights and carried mannequins a block from their store.

>> you can see it's up about six feet.

>> reporter: at this apartment building , the challenge, to get nine feet of water out of the basement.

>> we only have one generator outside pumping it, that could take days.

>> reporter: an enormous task sure to test new york 's patience. slowly new york will return to normal, and a big step comes tomorrow morning when the opening bell rings at the new york stock exchange , which has been closed for two straight days. something the weather hasn't done since the 1800s .

>> anne thompson , thanks very much.