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I think this might be The Disappearance Trilogy by John Birmingham.

There are three books: Without Warning (2008), After America (2010), Angels of Vengeance (2011).

On March 14, 2003, a wave of energy washes over North America, wiping out most of the populations of Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. The source is unknown, but it appears that Seattle, Western Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii are unaffected by the disaster.

This wave of energy is referred to as the "Wave" throughout the series.

In Without Warning, James Kipper (formerly a Seattle City Council Member) is eventually appointed President of the USA after the former President and almost his entire possible lineage of successors are wiped out. The only surviving Cabinet member is not a natural born US citizen and therefore ineligible.

In After America, President Kipper goes to New York in 2007 wanting to rebuild. Of course, chaos reigns.

After a meeting with foreign dignitaries in Seattle, Kipper and Culver head to New York City, where salvage crews are working to clear the streets of debris, the Wave having made its victims disappear, so crew-less vehicles and aircraft crashed as a result. Due to the lack of people to maintain New York City as well as cities all over the contiguous United States, fires burned unchecked and New York City is now flooded in some areas. The U.S. military has also had to step in alongside the New York Militia to fight droves of pirates, looters, terrorists and organized gangs who have moved into the U.S. East Coast from South America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

President Kipper holds a press meeting at Castle Clinton in Battery Park (not island) when the area is hit with Katyusha rockets from Muslim fighters on Ellis Island. So he was at Battery Park, though not living there.

I think this might be The Disappearance Trilogy by John Birmingham.

There are three books: Without Warning (2008), After America (2010), Angels of Vengeance (2011).

On March 14, 2003, a wave of energy washes over North America, wiping out most of the populations of Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. The source is unknown, but it appears that Seattle, Western Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii are unaffected by the disaster.

This wave of energy is referred to as the "Wave" throughout the series.

In Without Warning, James Kipper (formerly a Seattle City Council Member) is eventually appointed President of the USA after the former President and almost his entire possible lineage of successors are wiped out. The only surviving Cabinet member is not a natural born US citizen and therefore ineligible.

In After America, President Kipper goes to New York in 2007 wanting to rebuild. Of course, chaos reigns.

After a meeting with foreign dignitaries in Seattle, Kipper and Culver head to New York City, where salvage crews are working to clear the streets of debris, the Wave having made its victims disappear, so crew-less vehicles and aircraft crashed as a result. Due to the lack of people to maintain New York City as well as cities all over the contiguous United States, fires burned unchecked and New York City is now flooded in some areas. The U.S. military has also had to step in alongside the New York Militia to fight droves of pirates, looters, terrorists and organized gangs who have moved into the U.S. East Coast from South America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

President Kipper holds a press meeting at Castle Clinton in Battery Park (not island) when the area is hit with Katyusha rockets from Muslim fighters on Ellis Island in an assassination attempt. So he was at Battery Park, though not living there.

I think this might be The Disappearance Trilogy by John Birmingham.

There are three books: Without Warning (2008), After America (2010), Angels of Vengeance (2011).

On March 14, 2003, a wave of energy washes over North America, wiping out most of the populations of Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. The source is unknown, but it appears that Seattle, Western Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii are unaffected by the disaster.

This wave of energy is referred to as the "Wave" throughout the series.

In Without Warning, James Kipper (formerly a Seattle City Council Member) is eventually elected President of the USA after the former President and almost his entire possible lineage of sucessors are wiped out. The only surviving Cabinet member is not a natural born US citizen and therefore ineligible.

In After America, President Kipper goes to New York wanting to rebuild. Of course, chaos reigns.

After a meeting with foreign dignitaries in Seattle, Kipper and Culver head to New York City, where salvage crews are working to clear the streets of debris, the Wave having made its victims disappear, so crew-less vehicles and aircraft crashed as a result. Due to the lack of people to maintain New York City as well as cities all over the contiguous United States, fires burned unchecked and New York City is now flooded in some areas. The U.S. military has also had to step in alongside the New York Militia to fight droves of pirates, looters, terrorists and organized gangs who have moved into the U.S. East Coast from South America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

President Kipper holds a press meeting at Castle Clinton in Battery Park (not island) when the area is hit with Katyusha rockets from Muslim fighters on Ellis Island. So he was at Battery Park, though not living there.

I think this might be The Disappearance Trilogy by John Birmingham.

There are three books: Without Warning (2008), After America (2010), Angels of Vengeance (2011).

On March 14, 2003, a wave of energy washes over North America, wiping out most of the populations of Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. The source is unknown, but it appears that Seattle, Western Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii are unaffected by the disaster.

This wave of energy is referred to as the "Wave" throughout the series.

In Without Warning, James Kipper (formerly a Seattle City Council Member) is eventually appointed President of the USA after the former President and almost his entire possible lineage of successors are wiped out. The only surviving Cabinet member is not a natural born US citizen and therefore ineligible.

In After America, President Kipper goes to New York in 2007 wanting to rebuild. Of course, chaos reigns.

After a meeting with foreign dignitaries in Seattle, Kipper and Culver head to New York City, where salvage crews are working to clear the streets of debris, the Wave having made its victims disappear, so crew-less vehicles and aircraft crashed as a result. Due to the lack of people to maintain New York City as well as cities all over the contiguous United States, fires burned unchecked and New York City is now flooded in some areas. The U.S. military has also had to step in alongside the New York Militia to fight droves of pirates, looters, terrorists and organized gangs who have moved into the U.S. East Coast from South America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

President Kipper holds a press meeting at Castle Clinton in Battery Park (not island) when the area is hit with Katyusha rockets from Muslim fighters on Ellis Island. So he was at Battery Park, though not living there.

From a review of Without Warning:

It’s 2003 – and the United States is on the verge of invading Iraq. American and British soldiers are gathering in Kuwait, protest marches are on the streets and people…are just getting on with their lives. Suddenly, everything changes; a mysterious energy dome has appeared over most of America, killing the entire population. America is not just gone, but utterly inaccessible. The Wave, as it becomes called in the book, is beyond explanation. Anyone who goes into it dies. 99% of America and parts of Canada, Mexico and Cuba are wiped out in a split second. The world has changed beyond belief.

Birmingham mingles a cast of fictional and real-life characters (including Tommy Franks and Linda Lingle) as they struggle to deal with a world turned upside down. An American reporter in Kuwait finds himself recording stories that no one will ever hear. A crew of smugglers find themselves caught up in the chaos, trying to find safe haven. A civil engineer in Seattle struggles to save what remains of the United States. The CO of Gitmo, right on the edge of the Wave, tries desperately to preserve some order as the world collapses into chaos. And an American intelligence agent, lost and alone in Paris, finds herself trying to escape the madness as the city falls into darkness. Birmingham’s understanding of human nature is generally very good and, with one small exception, the cast responds in a believable manner. Very few of them, I do note, sit down to pray.

In a series of rapid-fire chapters, Birmingham charts out the course of the post-US world. Saddam sends his troops into Kuwait, intending to wipe out the remainder of the US presence in the Middle East, while Iran joins the fighting and engages US forces directly in the Gulf. The massive economic collapse across the world spurs on rioting and outright civil war in parts of Europe. Israel, faced with a world without America, launches a pre-emptive nuclear attack all along the Arabian Crescent. And the surviving Americans, lost and running out of supplies, find themselves dependent upon a wide range of nations for survival. It is not a cheerful world. By the end of the book, Russia is a resurgent power, China is collapsing into civil war, India and Pakistan are on the verge of a nuclear war and Europe is becoming a fascist state.

This wave of energy is referred to as the "Wave" throughout the series.

In Without Warning, James Kipper (formerly a Seattle City Council Member) is eventually elected President of the USA after the former President and almost his entire possible lineage of sucessors are wiped out. The only surviving Cabinet member is not a natural born US citizen and therefore ineligible.

In After America, President Kipper goes to New York wanting to rebuild. Of course, chaos reigns.

After a meeting with foreign dignitaries in Seattle, Kipper and Culver head to New York City, where salvage crews are working to clear the streets of debris, the Wave having made its victims disappear, so crew-less vehicles and aircraft crashed as a result. Due to the lack of people to maintain New York City as well as cities all over the contiguous United States, fires burned unchecked and New York City is now flooded in some areas. The U.S. military has also had to step in alongside the New York Militia to fight droves of pirates, looters, terrorists and organized gangs who have moved into the U.S. East Coast from South America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

President Kipper holds a press meeting at Castle Clinton in Battery Park (not island) when the area is hit with Katyusha rockets from Muslim fighters on Ellis Island. So he was at Battery Park, though not living there.