Mayor says New York Marathon will run Sunday

NEW YORK (AFP) –

A woman uses her cell phone in Grand Central Station in New York. Despite the devastation caused in New York by Hurricane Sandy, the New York Marathon will go ahead on Sunday as scheduled, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday.

Despite the devastation caused in New York by Hurricane Sandy, the New York Marathon will go ahead on Sunday as scheduled, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday.

Marathon officials had been proceeding as planned to stage the annual event that runs through all five boroughs of the largest city in America, but they were awaiting final word from city officials regarding the staging of the race.

Flooding and power outages remained common around the city and subway and other transit systems remained shut down because of the damage caused by the killer superstorm that blasted ashore late Monday in nearby New Jersey.

Mary Wittenberg, president of the New York Road Runners, said the organizing group was set to hire private contractors to replace city workers who would typically handle such things as security and medical needs for the race.

Many of those workers will be spending all week helping New York pull together after the storm shattered buildings and trees in a pre-Halloween horror show.

Wittenberg said the race could serve as much-needed inspiration to new Yorkers and help boost some businesses that suffered storm-related losses.