Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Beth Skudin, right, hugs a neighbor outside her home that was flooded by Superstorm Sandy, Thursday, Nov 1, 2012, in Long Beach, N.Y. Skudin was rescued by jetski from the window of her home on the night of the storm. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

The region hit by Superstorm Sandy was a patchwork of returning normality and despair, as bodies of the more than 90 dead across several U.S. states continued to be found but more communities were recovering power, gas and other basic needs. The total U.S. damage from the storm could run as high as $50 billion.

The bodies of two young boys who had been torn from their mother's arms in the storm surge were recovered from a marsh in New York City's Staten Island, where at least 19 people were killed, near half of the city's death toll, and some garbage-piled streets remained flooded.

James Molinaro, the borough's president, said the American Red Cross "is nowhere to be found."

The island is the starting point of the New York City's Marathon, the world's largest, which the city has declared would start from Staten Island as usual on Sunday, though backlash against that decision grew. The race attracts a large number of international runners among its more than 40,000 participants.

Across the New York and New Jersey region at the heart of the natural disaster, the vast transport systems lurched to life, but tempers were short in long lines for gas. In New York, a man was accused of pulling a gun Thursday on a motorist who complained when he cut in line at a gas station; no one was injured. The opening of the ports promised to relieve fuel shortages.

In Brooklyn, one line for gas snaked at least 10 blocks through narrow and busy streets. Some commuters accidentally found themselves in the line, and people got out of their cars to yell at them.

Cabdriver Harum Prince was in a Manhattan gas line 17 blocks long. "I don't blame anybody," he said. "God, he knows why he brought this storm."

More subway and rail lines were expected to open Friday, including Amtrak's New York to Boston route on the Northeast Corridor.

More 3.8 million homes and business in the East were still without power, down from a peak of 8.5 million.

Officials said power would return over the weekend to downtown Manhattan, where community groups began an effort to go door to door to check on the elderly and others who may not have been able to leave their homes for a fourth day because of pitch-black hallways and many flights of stairs.

"It's too much. You're in your house. You're freezing," said Geraldine Giordano, 82, a lifelong resident. Near her home, city employees had set up a sink where residents could get fresh water, if they needed it. There were few takers. "Nobody wants to drink that water," Giordano said.