(CNN) -- The destruction caused by Superstorm Sandy mounted Tuesday morning as electrical fires and record power outages added to the misery of devastating flooding in the Northeast.

power outages：斷電

add to：增加；加入到

By early Tuesday, more than 7 million customers shivered without electricity in 10 states and the District of Columbia in Sandy's chilly wake.

Sandy also claimed at least 16 lives across the United States, bringing the total number of deaths to at least 84 after the storm wreaked havoc in the Caribbean.

claim ones life：奪走...的生命

The storm sent trees crashing down and left neighborhood streets looking like rivers. Floodwaters rushed into New York's subway tunnels and ripped up part of Atlantic City's fabled boardwalk.

crash down：猛然倒下

rip up：撕碎；摧毀

Hundreds of people were stranded in one New Jersey town alone Tuesday morning. And Connecticut's governor offered ominous advice in a Twitter post: "If u find urself surrounded by water, call 4 help if u can, then get 2 highest level of home. Hang a white sheet out a street-side window."

be stranded in：被困在...

Authorities scrambled in boats to rescue trapped residents in several towns after a berm broke in Moonachie, New Jersey.

"Within 30 minutes, those towns were under 4 or 5 feet of water," said Jeanne Baratta, Bergen County executive chief of staff.

Hundreds of people had been rescued Tuesday morning, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said.

?"We'll have to rescue hundreds more," he said.

Meanwhile, the stench of smoke was blown across flooded streets as fierce winds and rising waters shorted out power lines and sparked fires in places such as Lindenhurst, New York.

At least 50 homes burned to the ground in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, fire officials said. The cause of the blaze was not immediately released. More than 200 firefighters battled the leaping flames.

Elsewhere in New York City, emergency backup power failed and 10 feet of water flooded the basement of NYU Langone Medical Center, prompting the evacuation of 260 patients. Nurses manually pumped air to the lungs of those on respirators.

Atlantic City, New Jersey, became an extension of the Atlantic Ocean. Seaweed and ocean debris swirled in the knee-deep water covering downtown streets.

Like many New Jersey residents, Montgomery Dahm stared in awe at the water that deluged Atlantic City.

stare in awe at：驚懼得凝視著

"I've been down here for about 16 years, and it's shocking what I'm looking at now. It's unbelievable," he said. "I mean, there's cars that are just completely underwater in some? of the places I would never believe that there would be water."

Along the East Coast, residents reported images they'd never seen before.

"We just looked out the window, and there's this river flowing through the middle of Manhattan," said Earl Bateman, a stockbroker who has lived in New York for 30 years.

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