Cold adds to N.Y. misery
‘You shiver yourself to sleep,’ says one survivor
NEW YORK — Shivering victims of superstorm Sandy went to church Sunday to pray for deliverance as cold weather settling in across New York — and another powerful storm forecast for the middle of the week — added to their misfortunes and deepened the gloom.
With overnight temperatures sinking and hundreds of thousands of people still without electricity, New York City officials handed out blankets and urged people to go to warming shelters set up during the day at senior citizen centres.
Leaders began to grapple with a daunting, longer-term problem: where to find housing for the tens of thousands whose homes could be uninhabitable for weeks or months.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 30,000 to 40,000 New Yorkers may need to be relocated — a monumental task in a city where housing is scarce and fiercely expensive — though he said that number would probably drop to 20,000 within a couple of weeks as power is restored in more places.
In a heavily flooded Staten Island neighbourhood, Sara Zavala spent the night under two blankets and layers of clothing because the power was out. She had a propane heater but turned it on for only a couple of hours in the morning. She did not want to sleep with it running at night.
“When I woke up, I was like, ‘It’s freezing.’ And I thought, ‘This can’t go on too much longer,’ ” said Zavala, a nursing home admissions coordinator.
On a basketball court flanked by powerless apartment buildings in the Far Rockaway section of Queens, volunteers handed out bagels, diapers, water, blankets and other necessities. Genice Josey filled a garbage bag until it was bulging.
“Nights are the worst because you feel like you’re outside when you’re inside,” said Josey, who sleeps under three blankets and wears long johns under her pyjamas. “You shiver yourself to sleep.” She added: “It’s like we’re going back to barbaric times where we had to go find food and clothing and shelter.”
Six days after Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline in an assault that killed more than 100 people in 10 states, gasoline shortages persisted across the region, though odd-even rationing got under way in New Jersey in an echo of the gas crises of the 1970s. More than 900,000 homes and businesses were still without power in New Jersey, and nearly 700,000 in New York City, its northern suburbs and Long Island.
With more subways running and most city schools reopening Monday, large swaths of the city were getting back to something resembling normal. But the coming week could bring new challenges, namely an election day without power in hundreds of polling places, and a nor’easter expected to hit by Wednesday, with the potential for 88-kilometre per hour gusts and more beach erosion, flooding and rain.
“Well, the first storm flooded me out, and my landlord tells me there’s a big crack in the ceiling, so I guess there’s a chance this storm could do more damage,” John Lewis said at a shelter in New Rochelle, N.Y. “I was hoping to get back in there sooner rather than later, but it doesn’t look good.”
Voting machines in hundreds of locations will be operating on generator power, some polling stations are being moved and there are likely to be delays in reporting election results in a few closely contested races because of extended deadlines for counting ballots cast by mail.
Churchgoers packed the pews Sunday in parkas, scarves and boots and looked for solace in faith.
In the heart of the Staten Island disaster zone, the Rev. Steve Martino of Movement Church headed a volunteer effort that had scores of people delivering supplies in grocery carts and cleaning out ruined homes. Around midday, the work stopped, and volunteer and victim alike bowed their heads in prayer.