The recovery process has just begun after Sandy hit overnight, and a disaster modeling company, EQUECAT, has estimated that the damage will be around $20 billion dollars.

More than 6 million people are without power, and as the sun rose, the devastation caused by Sandy became clearer.

"There are days, weeks if not longer before they are going to be truly back to some sort of normalcy,” said Tony Alotto, the director of the state's public works response team.

He knows all too well about the damage caused by hurricanes after experiencing several in Texas. Watching images of damage caused by Sandy is a flashback.

"Put yourself in the position of any one of the citizens. As soon as you evacuate, the first thing you want to do is when you can come home,” said Alotto.

The millions of victims aren't always who you think.

"A lot of those people are the water operators, the wastewater operators and the electric power workers and line workers and the maintenance workers for the community that we expect to go back and do their work,” said Alotto.

These workers are trying to get power restored, but that can only happen once the debris is moved.

"It's a beautifully wooded area. That's the great news, and the bad news is it's a beautifully wooded area. A lot of those trees will come down and often take a power line with them,” said Alotto.

Alotto says that they are on standby and prepared to deploy to the northeast to help.