NEW YORK-Workers in New York City and nearby towns raced to fix damaged power grids and traffic systems after "superstorm" Sandy left a strip of destruction across 15 US states and cut power to more than 8 million people. "In 108 years, our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that faces us now," said Joseph Lhota, chairman of MTA, which operates New York City's subway system that has been suspended due to historic flooding in some tunnels. Partial subway service was restarted on Thursday. "All of us at the MTA are committed to restoring the system as quickly as we can to help bring New York back to normal." Much of the lower half of Manhattan is still without power. Thousands of homes and small businesses may have to put up with darkness at least until this weekend. Nearby areas are struggling to recover from flooding and damages after Hurricane Sandy struck the US East Coast and made a landfall at New Jersey Monday evening. At least 115 people have died from Sandy in the United States since Monday, including 39 from New York City, police said. In New Jersey, the death toll had reached 13 as search and rescue teams gained access to stricken areas. As Sandy faded further inland, bus and bridge services in New York City were restarted late Tuesday, but road blocking was ubiquitous in Manhattan because of a loss of subway service across NYC. The UN Headquarters in New York, located along the East River, were closed for three days due to the storm and suffered damage from high winds and flooding. It reopened on Thursday. With superstorm Sandy fading, Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney Thursday were back on the campaign trail, trying to make up for the lost time as they dashed towards the finish line. The two candidates were making closing arguments before Americans head to polling stations   across the country next Tuesday in the question, "Where will the voters go to cast their ballots  --particularly for parts of New York City and New Jersey where hundreds of thousands of people remained without power?" Local election boards are assessing their polling sites to decide which ones would be up and running by Tuesday's election while utility   companies hope to get the electricity back on time for Election Day. It can be inferred from the passage that   _  .
Sandy caused power failure across the country There are 8 million people in the east coast of the US The US President Election Day is drawing near Obama has more advantages than Romney in the election