More than a week after Superstorm Sandy devastated the New York metropolitan area, some commuters will regain something of a sense of normalcy Wednesday morning.

The Holland Tunnel is set to reopen to all commuter traffic at 5 a.m., according to a joint news release from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. On an average weekday, the release says, about 91,000 vehicles use the tunnel, which passes under the Hudson River between Manhattan and Jersey City, New Jersey.

But for thousands of Sandy's victims, normalcy and reality are far apart.

Tired, homeless and emotionally drained, 76-year-old Frank Gissi was not planning to vote Tuesday.

The storm-battered ex-New York City cop is among the hundreds of displaced residents in the coastal Staten Island neighborhood of New Dorp with far more basic needs.

"I'm sick, crying," he said, eight days after Superstorm Sandy knocked out power and swept away homes.

"I lost everything."

Overall, more than 139,000 Staten Island households were affected by Sandy, and thousands there were among about 80,000 New York-area customers still lacking power Tuesday night, according to Con Edison, New York City's largest utility company.

Elsewhere, Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the hard-hit Rockaway neighborhoods of Queens, where sanitation workers continued to clean up downed trees, utility poles and homes.

According to the latest count, Sandy has claimed 110 lives across the Northeastern United States. Next, freezing temperatures, lingering power outages and an incoming low pressure system could make matters worse.

"Now if the snow comes in heavy, we're cooked," Gissi said.

Tuesday morning brought life-threatening cold across the New York metropolitan region, with temperatures dropping into the 20s.

Across the entire region hit by Sandy, nearly 9,000 storm survivors spent Monday night in public shelters, the Red Cross told CNN, while others slept in cars or stayed with family or neighbors.

Forecasters predict rain will move in early Wednesday and will gradually become heavier, bringing 2- to 4-foot storm surges and up to 45 mph wind gusts. The weather will get worse, CNN meteorologists say, with daytime temperatures hovering in the 40s.

"Mother Nature is not cooperating, and this will complicate the restoration effort," said John Miksad, Con Edison's senior vice president of electric operations.

At night, it could again get down to the 20s, leaving those without shelter in potentially deadly circumstances, while a renewed risk of floods again plagued the region.

"A lot of these beaches have had their sand eroded" by Sandy, creating flood risks in areas that typically do not have them, said Bloomberg, who ordered all parks, beaches and playgrounds closed by noon Wednesday.

More than a week after the storm hit, officials painted a picture of a recovery that left many survivors disappointed. In New Jersey, 566,000 customers were without power, Gov. Chris Christie said.

"It is like a war zone down there," he said, referring to places such as Mantoloking in Ocean County, where heavy flooding and fires wiped out large sections of the town.

At least 20 homes burned to the ground there, mirroring a similar incident in Breezy Point, a neighborhood in Queens New York City, where a cluster of more than 100 houses caught fire during the storm.