US President Barack Obama visited the state of New Jersey, to survey the devastation two days after the huge storm, Sandy, made landfall nearby.

With Republican Governor Chris Christie, he met rescue workers and residents in Atlantic City.

The massive cyclone killed at least 50 people across the northeastern US and millions are still without power.

Some businesses and services reopened after a two-day forced closure, and Wall Street is trading again.

The president has put campaigning on hold for a third day ahead of next Tuesday’s US election, as he directs the federal response to the storm.

New Jersey’s Republican governor, usually one of Mr Obama’s fiercest critics, has lavishly praised the Democratic president for his leadership during the storm crisis.

BBC North America editor Mark Mardell, in New Jersey, says such plaudits ring louder than anything a celebrity or supporter could say.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney cancelled campaign events at the height of the disaster, but has now returned to the trail with rallies in the crucial swing state of Florida.

Analysts say the Republican must tread a delicate line between making his case for election without seeming to attack the president too aggressively during a time of national crisis.

Mr Obama plans to resume campaigning on Thursday with stops in Nevada, Colorado and Wisconsin.

The president and Gov Christie boarded the presidential Marine One helicopter upon arrival in southern New Jersey on Wednesday for an aerial tour of the damage.

They were joined by the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate.

Homes and streets remain under water in parts of the Garden State, where Sandy made landfall on Monday night.

In Hoboken, on the banks of the Hudson River, the National Guard has been evacuating deluged homeowners and distributing meals.

Of more than 6m homes and businesses across the north-east that still have no electricity, a third of them in New Jersey.

New York, which is also counting the cost of Sandy’s trail of destruction, is slowly getting on the move again.

Sandy brought a record storm surge of almost 14ft (4.2m) to parts of Manhattan, swamping the subway and bringing blackouts across the city.

The New York Stock Exchange reopened on Wednesday, albeit running on generator power. The Nasdaq was also back in business after two days’ closure.

Partial subway service is due to begin running on Thursday in New York City, which was paralysed by chronic traffic gridlock during Wednesday’s rush hour.

Many bus services are back on the roads, and most of the city’s bridges have re-opened.

Flights started arriving at JFK and Newark Liberty airports on Wednesday morning, but the city’s LaGuardia airport remains closed. Nearly 20,000 flights were grounded by Sandy.

In New York City alone, at least 22 people were killed by the storm. Among those who died were:

Artur Kasprzak, 28, an off-duty police officer who was moving his relatives, including a 15-month-old baby, to the attic of their house in Staten Island. He died in the basement of his home as water flooded in

Lauren Abraham, 23, caught fire and burned to death after a live wire touched her as she tried to take pictures of a damaged power line outside her house in Queens

Jessie Streich-Kest, 24, and her friend Jacob Vogelman, 23, were killed by a falling tree as they walked Jessie’s dog, Max, in a Brooklyn park

In all, storm Sandy has claimed some 120 lives, after killing nearly 70 people as it hit the Caribbean.

Impoverished Haiti is facing severe food shortages after 70% of crops were destroyed by the storm, officials said.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20159396