New York, New York, it's a wonderful town. But I never realized how fragile it was until Hurricane Sandy hit the Big Apple.

The images of the carnage caused by Sandy resembled those from a war zone, and more than 30 people in New York are known to have died as a result of the rampaging superstorm.

In the aftermath of the hurricane, tens of thousands of New Yorkers have been living without tap water and electricity and one of the world's oldest and most extensive subway systems, which millions of people depend on every day, was paralyzed due to flooding in some of the tunnels. A fire in Breezy Point, Queens, reduced more than 100 houses to ashes.