Teams of engineers on New York City's Staten Island had done, by Nov. 6, rapid structural assessments of more than 5,000 houses in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy. They have a total of 19,000 houses on the list and are assessing more than 1,000 each day.
Though New Jersey's Office of Emergency Management says assessments are under way in the hardest-hit areas of the state, there are no details available. At press time, neither state had a tally of how many damaged houses were safe to enter.