Privation and cold in New York

Hypothermia warning issued to New Yorkers in wake of superstorm

RT,

4 October, 2012

New York’s mayor issued a hypothermia warning as temperatures plummet, endangering the lives of thousands still without heating after Hurricane Sandy. He decried energy companies for not restoring power quick enough in view of the cold snap.

Forecasters have predicted that temperatures will drop as low as two degrees Celsius and, with a new storm expected to arrive this coming week, bringing cold winds, rain and snow, authorities have issued the health warning.

To compete with the dropping temperatures the Red Cross has doubled its efforts in the city, offering warming shelters and blankets to those to whom power has not been restored.

"We're working closely with emergency operations centers to stand up warming facilities, warming shelters, and stocking those with additional blankets, pillows and everything needed." said Charley Shimanski, senior vice president of disaster services to Sky News.

New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg has criticized energy companies in Long Island for not working fast enough to restore power to deprived areas of the city. He called it “unacceptable” that some areas would have to wait up to two weeks before being re-connected.

“In our view LIPA [Long Island Power Authority], as it’s called, has not acted aggressively enough,” Bloomberg said. “We realize that LIPA has outages throughout Long Island, but the Rockaways were the hardest hit, and when it comes to prioritizing resources we think they should be first online. So far that does not appear to be the case and that is just not acceptable.”

Bloomberg also said it may take a couple of days for emergency petrol supplies brought in from outside the city on barges to filter through, although he did say that most of the city’s subway system was now up and running. He added that the city’s recovery was far from over and “I don’t think anybody should think that we’re out of the woods.”

"It's chaos, it's pandemonium out here," said Chris Damon, who had been waiting for several hours for petrol, to AP. "It seems like nobody has any answers."

A petrol station in Queens where a tanker was filling up cars one at a time caused a line-up of more than 400 vehicles.

Trucks have been dispatched throughout the city, but the measure has fallen woefully short of demand. A fuel rationing plan is currently in place and authorities have warned citizens to give priority to rescue and law-enforcement vehicles.

The area worst hit by the so-called Superstorm is Queens, with over 81,000 people without power. The total death toll within the city in the wake of the storm is 42 so far, but there have been no reports of hypothermia-related hospitalizations. In total over 900,000 people in the New York metropolitan area remain without gas or electricity.

Not all doom and gloom

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which caused havoc in New York, police have reported an unexpected slump in crime levels in the city.

Citing statistics, officers said that murders in the city had fallen by a record 81 per cent compared with the same period in 2011. Moreover, rape and petty theft rates are also lower than usual.

"We have a large number of police officers deployed, we have light towers deployed, radio cars patrolling. We are focused on the blackout areas," he said. "We are doing, I think, an excellent job," said the New York Chief of police.

Housing crisis looms as storm victims battle cold

A housing crisis loomed in New York City as victims of superstorm Sandy struggled on Sunday without heat in near-freezing temperatures, and officials fretted displaced residents would not be able to vote in Tuesday's presidential election.

Reuters,

4 November, 2012

Fuel shortages and power outages lingered nearly a week after one of the worst storms in U.S. history flooded homes in coastal neighborhoods, leaving many without heat and in need of shelter. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 30,000 to 40,000 people in New York City alone would need housing.

Overnight, at least two more bodies were found in New Jersey - one dead of hypothermia - as the overall North American death toll from Sandy climbed to at least 111.

"People are in homes that are uninhabitable," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said alongside Bloomberg at a news conference. "People don't like to leave their home, but the reality is going to be in the temperature."

Officials were figuring out how to provide short- and long-term housing for tens of thousands of people, Cuomo said.

Immediate plans call for keeping those who have been displaced as near as possible to their homes, but Cuomo and other officials gave few details about where they would be housed.

Temperatures dipped to 39 Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) early on Sunday morning in New York City, the lowest in days, with freezing temperatures expected overnight. An early-season "Nor'easter" storm was expected to hit the battered New England coast this week with strong winds and heavy rain.

Fuel supplies continued to rumble toward disaster zones and electricity was slowly returning to darkened neighborhoods, after the storm slammed the coast last Monday.

It would be a "very, very long time" before power would return to certain neighborhoods along the coast, where buildings were destroyed, Bloomberg said. Cuomo said fuel shortages are improving but problems will persist for "a number of days."

RUINED THINGS

In the hard-hit borough of Staten Island, Marie Mandia's house had a yellow sticker on it, meaning the city restricted her use of it. The storm surge broke through her windows and flooded her basement and main floor, the retired teacher said.

"I'm not staying here. There's no protection," said Mandia, 60, who stood outside by a pile of her ruined things - a washer, drier, television and furniture. "Here's my life. Everybody's looking at it."

On Friday, Bloomberg abruptly called off the city's marathon, which was set for Sunday, bowing to criticism that the event would divert resources from flood-ravaged neighborhoods. Instead, hundreds of runners set off on informal runs to deliver food and clothes to Staten Island and other areas in need.

Power restorations over the weekend relit the skyline in Lower Manhattan for the first time in nearly a week and allowed 80 percent of the New York City subway service to resume. But with most schools reopening on Monday, the commute was expected to be slow.

Some 1.9 million homes and business still lacked power across the Northeast on Sunday, down from 2.5 million the day before.

Despite the successes in returning power across the region, a quarter of New Jersey and almost a tenth of New York remained in the dark, the Department of Energy said. Just after Sandy tore across the densely populated area, more than 8.5 million customers were without power.

"All these numbers are nice but they mean nothing until the power is on in your house," said Cuomo, who warned he would hold the utility companies accountable "100 percent" for their recovery work.

ELECTION FACES 'REAL PROBLEMS'

President Barack Obama, neck-and-neck in opinion polls with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, ordered emergency response officials to cut through government "red tape" and work without delay to help affected areas return to normal.

Concerns meanwhile are growing that voters displaced by Sandy won't get to polling stations on Tuesday. Scores of voting centers were rendered useless by the record surge of seawater in New York and New Jersey.

Bloomberg said the Board of Elections has "real problems," and that the city will do all it can to get people to the polls. Some voters in New York could be casting their ballots in tents, while New Jersey is allowing displaced voters to vote by email.

With the post-storm chaos overshadowing the final days of campaigning, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday found that 68 percent of those surveyed approved of how Obama handled Sandy and just 15 percent disapproved.

The two new deaths in New Jersey - where the storm came ashore last Monday night - included a 71-year-old man who suffered from hypothermia and a 55-year-old man who died from smoke inhalation in a house fire, police said on Sunday.

That raised New Jersey's death toll to 24 while the New York City death count was 40.

Sandy killed 69 people in the Caribbean before turning north and hammering the U.S. Eastern Seaboard on Monday with 80 mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds and a record surge of seawater that swallowed oceanside communities, halted transportation and flooded streets and New York City subway tunnels, where electronics were damaged by sea water.

In another sign of recovery, New York University's Langone Medical Center planed a partial reopening of its doctors' offices, out-patient procedure and testing sites on Monday. The hospital lost power as Sandy hammered down, forcing patient evacuations Monday night.

RELIEF RUNS

New York's overstretched police got a break with the cancellation of the marathon, a popular annual race that was expected to draw more than 40,000 runners to the city from around the world.

More than 1,000 people, many of whom had planned to run the race, crowded onto two Staten Island Ferry boats early on Sunday, headed to the stricken borough with relief supplies including food and plastic bags.

Lara Duerrschmid, 27, was among the marathon runners boarding a ferry to help residents of Staten Island. "I know it's going to be tough to see (the damage), but I just wanted to do something good," she said.

New York's Central Park also was crowded with runners near what would have been the marathon's finish line, scores of them shivering in the cold Sunday morning and collecting donations for Sandy victims.

Meanwhile, tight gasoline supplies have in the last few days tested the patience of drivers, with fistfights breaking out in mile-long lines of cars. But a reopened New York Harbor meant fuel was reaching terminals, even as major facilities remained idle.

Portable generators were requested for 120 gasoline stations without power, said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York.

2.7M without power; Sandy death toll 113

Equities,

4 November, 2012

Life was returning to normal in parts of New York and New Jersey, five days after Hurricane Sandy hit, but other areas were dark and isolated, authorities said.

About 2.7 million customers in 15 states and the District of Columbia were without power Saturday, with at least some facing perhaps another week before it is restored, CNN reported.

The U.S. death toll from Hurricane Sandy rose Saturday, reaching 113, the Los Angeles Times reported, up from 97 Friday. The newspaper said 48 of the deaths were in New York, followed by New Jersey with 24, Pennsylvania 14, Maryland 11, West Virginia seven and Connecticut four, North Carolina two, Virginia two and New Hampshire one.

Residents of many beach towns on the South Shore of Long Island were waiting for power to be restored, and even for some sign someone was in charge, The New York Times reported. Vikki Quinn's house in Long Beach was flooded and her possessions were piled in the yard.

"I just keep waiting for someone with a megaphone and a car to just tell us what to do," she told the Times. "I'm lost."

President Barack Obama convened a meeting of top emergency officials in Washington, with Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo of New York and Dannel Malloy of Connecticut joining by telephone.

White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters members of the Cabinet reported on their meetings with local officials, first responders and citizens, and the president spoke individually during the meeting with the governors and local officials, asking whether there are "additional federal resources that could be brought to bear to meet some of the needs in their communities."

Earnest said the president also got a briefing from the National Weather Service on a storm forecast to reach the U.S. Northeast Wednesday. Forecasters said the system could come with high winds, substantial rainfall and perhaps cooler temperatures.

Lights were back on Saturday in most of Manhattan. Subway trains began running between Manhattan and the Long Island boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens for the first time since the storm flooded the tunnels under the East River, the Times said.

Cuomo said about 60 percent of those in New York who lost power had it back by Saturday. On Long Island, however, more than half of the 1.2 million homes and businesses affected by the storm were still in the dark.

"We are getting through it," Cuomo said at a news briefing. "The worst is behind us."

Gas remained in short supply. Cuomo said 8 million gallons had been delivered, with 28 million more expected from commercial sources and 12 million from the Defense Department.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other top officials were to visit some of the worst-hit areas.

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 the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

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.

"One 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."

The number of residences and businesses without power as of Friday night was 95,000 in Manhattan; 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.

"Two 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."

In New Jersey, Christie allowed Atlantic City casinos to reopen Friday. Some did, and others said they would open during the weekend.

New Jersey Transit began running trains on the Northeast Corridor between Trenton and New York and said most buses were running again by Saturday morning. Other rail lines remained shut down.

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. Since Thursday, they distributed about 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.

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.