(MCT) — NEW YORK — Fallen trees blocked winding Greenwich Village streets normally jammed with tourists and taxis. Muddy sandbags squished against empty high-rises in the Financial District. The façade of a building had ripped off in Chelsea, leaving apartments bare to camera-toting crowds on the street.

For a change, it wasn’t just out-of-towners wandering slack-jawed at the sights of Manhattan. Facing a massive cleanup from Sandy’s devastation Tuesday, New Yorkers were a state of disbelief as they realized that America’s largest city, for all its museums and Broadway shows, its noisy subways and neon-lit squares, was no match for a super storm.