Nor'easter Headed for Battered New York-New Jersey Region

Region is now facing more rain, wind and brutal cold as nor'easter approaches.

ByABC News
November 5, 2012, 8:01 AM

Nov. 5, 2012 — -- The New York and New Jersey area, still struggling to recover from superstorm Sandy, is now bracing for a nor'easter that will bring more rain, wind and brutal cold as it pummels the coast this week.

Over the next three days cold air will drop in to the northeast corridor of the U.S., bringing wind chills down to 33 degrees to areas that were severely impacted by Sandy. Gusts of wind up to 55 mph are likely to reach the region by Wednesday.

The National Weather Service warns of high winds, coastal flooding and beach erosion, adding that localized flooding from heavy rain and wet snow could potentially bring power outages and dangerous travel.

High winds are expected to knock down more trees and limbs that have already been weakened by Sandy, according to the NWS.

Tempers are already fraying as more than 1.4 million homes are entering their second week without power. The hardest hit areas are New Jersey, with 780,000 outages, and New York, that still has 540,000 without power.

Another storm could delay restoration efforts as well as add new outages to the utilities' repair list.

As the nor'easter moves in, tens of thousands of New Yorkers are still displaced, homeless or living in cold, dark homes without power following the devastation that last week's weather brought to New York and New Jersey. According to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 20,000 people in the city could need housing help.

On Monday night temperatures are expected to reach into the low to mid 20s for most the area between New York and Washington, D.C. Air temperatures will be near freezing, and daytime highs will not rebound much, only into the 40s for most areas.

Strong winds at 40 to 50 mph will raise the surf and push some of the storm surge inland into coastal New Jersey and southern New England, possibly flooding some of the coastal areas once again.

Rainfall is anticipated to be the heaviest along the coast around the Outer Banks of North Carolina to southern New England around Boston and Cape Cod, where 3 to 4 inches of rain could fall.

The New Jersey shore and Long Island can expect to see 1 to 3 inches of rain.

Up to a foot of snow is expected in inland areas, from the Poconos in Pennsylvania to New York's Catskills, Adirondacks Mountains, as well as the Green and White mountains of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

ABC News' Max Golembo contributed to this report