2 years after Sandy, are we better prepared?

NEW YORK

- After Superstorm Sandy, officials in New York and New Jersey vowed to make sure the unprecedented destruction wouldn't happen again.

Two years later, would it?

There are some concrete signs of tougher protections, from a nearly finished sea wall protecting two devastated New Jersey towns to a Long Island boardwalk rebuilt to serve as a retaining wall. New floodgates protect a power plant where Sandy plunged miles of Manhattan into darkness and some homes sit higher while other buildings boast new flood barriers.

But many planned projects are still years off and some ideas still under study. Thousands of homeowners await repair aid, some of it coupled with steps to make homes safer. Some efforts to buy out flood-prone homes haven't gotten takers in the worst-hit areas. And across the coast, a patchwork of protections leaves some areas more vulnerable than others.

KIEV, Ukraine

- Ukrainians overwhelmingly backed several pro-Western parties in a landmark parliamentary election yesterday, another nudge in the former Soviet republic's drift away from Russia.

Two exit polls released as voting closed indicated that President Petro Poroshenko's party will secure a narrow win in the parliamentary election, falling substantially short of an outright majority. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's Popular Front followed close behind.

Although they lead rival parties, Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk share pro-Western sentiments and have campaigned on reform agendas aimed at pulling Ukraine back from the brink of economic ruin. The parties are expected to join forces with other reform-oriented groups to form a broad pro-European coalition.

Dozens of residents in a rural area of Hawaii were placed on alert as flowing lava from an erupting volcano continued to advance.

Authorities yesterday said lava flow on the Big Island of Hawaii had advanced about 250 yards since Saturday morning and was moving at the rate of about 10 to 15 yards an hour, consistent with its advancement in recent days.

The flow front passed through a predominantly Buddhist cemetery, covering grave sites in the mostly rural region of Puna, and was roughly a half-mile from Pahoa Village Road, the main street of Pahoa.

Darryl Oliveira, director of civil defense for Hawaii County, told reporters during a teleconference yesterday that the nearest home was at least 300 yards from the flow front. He planned to get better coordinates during a flight later in the day.

Starting today, millions of people who have avoided colon-cancer screening can get a new home test that's noninvasive and doesn't require the icky preparation most other methods do.

The test is the first to look for cancer-related DNA in stool. But deciding whether to get it is a more complex choice than ads for "the breakthrough test . . . that's as easy as going to the bathroom" make it seem.

On one hand, the test could greatly boost screening for a deadly disease that too few people get checked for now.

On the other hand, it could lure people away from colonoscopies and other tests that, unlike the new one, have been shown to save lives.

- Daily News wire reports