Diana Nyad passes halfway mark of 48-hour NYC swim

NEW YORK The 64-year-old woman who swam from Havana to Key West has passed the halfway mark in her marathon Manhattan swim to benefit victims of Superstorm Sandy.

Diana Nyad started her 48-hour swim Tuesday morning in a 40-yard pool set up in Herald Square. Her aim is to raise money for people still struggling a year after Sandy.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nyad had been in the pool for more than 24 hours and had raised more than $56,500.

Contributions are being accepted by the disaster relief agency AmeriCares Foundation, which will distribute the funds.

Last month, the native New Yorker became the first person confirmed to have swum from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.

She told The Associated Press on Monday that one of her swimming companions in Manhattan will be a dog named Roscoe that survived Sandy's floodwaters.

Nyad told CBSNews.com last week that she was "more than ready" for the marathon swim.

"I'm from New York City and last year I was in town right after Sandy hit...You feel such tremendous compassion for people," she said last week. "You might sit down and write a little check for disaster relief -- whatever you can afford...And then it's not front page news and you forget about it....Well thousands of people haven't forgotten about it -- Jersey Shore, Staten Island, Far Rockaway -- all over New York and New Jersey."