Parts of New York City sprang back to life as power returned to blacked-out Manhattan neighborhoods and service resumed on the busiest subway lines, while outlying areas remained plagued by devastation from superstorm Sandy.
Most Manhattan customers got electricity back as of today, five days after the storm struck, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. Almost 30 million gallons (114 million liters) of fuel are set to reach the area in coming days, on top of the 8 million already shipped to help mitigate gasoline shortages. Runners, including some visiting for the canceled New York City Marathon, swarmed Central Park, which reopened this morning.
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“This was truly a crisis,” Cuomo said in a Manhattan news conference today. “The worst is behind us. It’s not going to be over in 24 hours, but the arrows are pointed in the right direction.”
Frustration persisted in parts of the city and metropolitan region hit hardest by the biggest Atlantic tropical storm. On Staten Island, which suffered about half the city’s 41 storm fatalities, residents questioned why there wasn’t more help from rescue workers and cleanup crews before yesterday.
Pitched arguments and hours-long lines still foiled efforts to refuel. Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) customers in the outer boroughs and Westchester County may still have to wait until Nov. 11 for power, John Miksad, a senior vice president, said yesterday. The company owns New York City’s utility.
Relief Due
New Yorkers spent the week coping with blackouts, hobbled mass transit and a lack of food and water. In the city of 8 million, the nation’s most populous, floodwaters inundated transit tunnels, underground utilities and parts of all five boroughs. The storm killed at least 105 people in the U.S., according to the Associated Press, and knocked out power to as many as 8.5 million homes and businesses along the East Coast.
“There is nothing more important than getting this right,” President Barack Obama said of the recovery effort at a briefing today at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Cabinet members, including Kathleen Sebelius of Health and Human Services, planned to tour devastated city neighborhoods today.
Lights Out
About 2.6 million U.S. homes and businesses still lacked electricity after 900,000 customers were brought back online overnight and restoration efforts stalled in New Jersey.
Chris Cady, 52, a stock-index futures trader who lives in Manhattan’s East Village, got his power back yesterday.
“It was a combination of a surprise birthday party and New Year’s Eve,” he said.
Cuomo said officials won’t stop working until power returns everywhere. He urged patience after the Coast Guard released fuel tankers that had been held in New York harbor.
Reacting to gasoline shortages, the Department of Defense began setting up mobile fueling stations. Access was restricted to emergency personnel and first-responder vehicles, and off limits to the public.
New Yorkers had access to more transportation options as the day progressed.
The 4, 5, 6 and 7 subway lines began running this morning, connecting Manhattan with parts of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens for the first time since Oct. 28, said Joseph Lhota, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. About 80 percent of service will be restored by day’s end, he said.
Happy Rider
“I’ve never been so happy to ride the subway!” said Molly O’Neal, 26, as a 4 train approached the platform of the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center stop in Brooklyn. Like many commuters, she’s been improvising to get to work, including walking over the Brooklyn Bridge to her restaurant job in downtown Manhattan.
At The Grey Dog cafe in Greenwich Village, the weekend routine was underway as locals and tourists sipped cappuccino and ate muffins. Dave Ethan, a co-owner, said his staff got to work even without subway service.
“They don’t have a bank account that warrants missing a day’s work,” he said. “I don’t think many people do — not in this business.”
Phones were already ringing with reservation requests this morning at The Odeon, a Tribeca diner. The area had been without power all week.
“People are ready to get out of their houses,” said co- manager Roya Shanks.
Patience Tested
In neighborhoods outside Manhattan, patience is all but exhausted.
Staten Island residents such as Donel Franco, a 31-year-old mother of two, said she was unhappy that Red Cross workers and military personnel didn’t begin providing aid until Nov. 1.
“We need somewhere to go until we can go back home, if we can ever,” Franco said. “All of our stuff is covered in mud. I feel so helpless.”
Roger Lowe, a Red Cross spokesman in Washington, said the organization’s trucks had to use the same clogged roads as everyone else.
“Everybody wants to get help as fast as possible,” he said by phone. “You don’t position supplies and people in the path of the storm. You wait until the storm has passed and then you get in. That always takes time.”
The marathon, expected to draw 47,000 runners, was canceled yesterday after criticism that staging the race tomorrow, so soon after the storm, would drain resources and be an affront to storm victims. Some runners planned trips to Staten Island to help with recovery efforts.
In the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City, across the East River from Manhattan, Jules Adams sat in front of a blank computer screen at City Vet, one of the only businesses open.
Without power, the 43-year-old veterinarian has been seeing her four-legged patients by headlamp in darkened exam rooms. All surgery and X-ray equipment were destroyed by floodwaters, she said, and electrical boxes in the basement will have to be replaced before power is restored.
“The neighborhood is getting slowly back on its feet,” she said. “To get completely back to normal, that will take months.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Esme E. Deprez in New York at [email protected]; Brian Chappatta in New York at [email protected]; Peter S. Green in New York at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at [email protected]
