Obama meets with governors on hurricane

The military was delivering fuel and power aid to New York Saturday as President Barack Obama prepared to meet with East Coast governors on Hurricane Sandy. Obama was to meet with the governors of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey on hurricane relief and recovery efforts, a White House official said. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Energy Secretary Steven Chu also will attend, the White House official told CNN. Administration officials are scheduled to spend the day in some of the hardest-hit hurricane areas. Napolitano, who spent Friday on New York's Staten Island, is slated to go to West Virginia and New York's Long Island; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will visit New York's Brooklyn and Manhattan; Karen Mills, head of the Small Business Administration, will go to Connecticut's Norwalk and Bridgeport; and Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, will be in New York's Rockaways and Breezy Point. Deputy national security adviser John Brennan will tour Staten Island, as well as the New Jersey cities of Hoboken, Newark and Jersey City. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg Friday announced the opening of the first of several disaster assistance service centers that will provide information about applying for emergency social and economic benefits. All of the centers will be operated by the city's Human Resources Administration in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and will be open seven days a week. As of Friday afternoon, more than 98,000 people in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut had registered for federal assistance and more than $40 million in aid has been approved, a statement by FEMA said. The U.S. death toll from Hurricane Sandy was 106, up from 97 Friday, said Adam Grossman, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police. New York City inspectors are posting color-coded placards on buildings and homes to warn people not to enter some buildings. "Let me just reiterate what a red placard means: It is not a demolition order; if you read carefully what's written on it, it says it's not a demolition order. It is an order not to enter for your safety," Bloomberg said. "A yellow placard requires you to have a safety inspection before entering. And I also want to emphasize that's just because water may be out of the basement doesn't mean that it's safe to turn on electricity, or a boiler, or a generator to power your home. It really is a significant fire risk to do so. "1 of the things that struck me was people kept thinking that if a generator miraculously showed up in the neighborhood all would be OK. That's just not the case. When all of the wiring is covered with water, salt water in particular, you have to do a lot of work before you can re-energize those lines. And so we've already seen some cases where when electricity was turned on there were fires and we lost some other houses. We want to make sure that does not happen." In big buildings in Manhattan with engineers, Consolidated Edison is having each of those buildings disconnect from the grid if there has been significant damage done to the electrical system, Bloomberg said. "But when it comes to individual homes, that is much more problematic, and so in these neighborhoods we're going to have to go door to door," Bloomberg said. "And if we can't get in, then it's a real risk because if you turn on power in the neighborhood a fire may start inside." As of Friday night, 95,000 in Manhattan did not have power, 26,000 in the Bronx, 34,000 in Brooklyn, 84,000 in Queens and 48,000 in Staten Island, the New York Daily News reported. Con Ed said it hopes to have power restored to most of Manhattan by Saturday. "2 networks in Lower Manhattan will take a little longer to bring back online," Bloomberg said. "However, even with crews working around the clock, it's going to take a lot longer to bring power back to areas that are served by overhead power lines -- and that includes the Long Island Power Authority's more than 30,000 customers on the Rockaways." New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie allowed the Atlanta City casinos to reopen Friday. Some did, and others said they would open over the weekend. New York City has 13 food distribution sites opened, staffed by National Guard members, New York City Service volunteers and by the staff of the Salvation Army to distribute pre-prepared meals and bottled water. Since Thursday, they distributed some 290,000 meals and nearly a half-million bottles of water, Bloomberg said. "Goldman Sachs, through its urban investment group, will match the $5 million New York City is providing in funding for small businesses affected by the hurricane," Bloomberg said. "These funds will be loaned to businesses in Zone A and other areas where there have been power outages and severe flooding. The funds are expected to flow to boroughs on an expedited basis five to seven days after application. Loans will range from $5,000 to $25,000 and will help small business with working capital repairs and business interruption, among other things." Businesses had contributed more than $33 million in donations to Sandy relief as of early Friday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civil Leadership Center told CNNMoney.