Obama tours storm-battered New York

By David Ariosto, CNN

updated 9:38 PM EST, Thu November 15, 2012

People walk along a beach in the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York on Friday, November 16. See photos of the immediate aftermath of Sandy.

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Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Obama designates HUD secretary to be point person for New York storm recovery effort
• Gas rationing will end Friday in Nassau and Suffolk County
• Households without power across New York down to about 4,000, officials say

New York (CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Thursday designated Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan as the federal point person to lead the recovery effort from Superstorm Sandy, a little over two weeks after the rare mix of converging weather slammed into the Northeast.

"We thought it'd be good to have a New Yorker," Obama said, referencing Donovan's previous stint atop the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The agency is thought to be among the nation's largest municipal developers of low- to mid-income housing.

"FEMA basically runs the recovery process," the president said. "It doesn't focus on the rebuilding. For that, we've got to have all government agencies involved."

He addressed reporters beside Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg in hard-hit Staten Island, where more than half of New York City's 43 storm deaths occurred.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/15/us/new-york-obama-sandy/index.html