Eleven New York City Housing Authority developments are still without power after Hurricane Sandy hit more than a week ago, and while NYCHA says the lights will turn on this weekend, many are skeptical, according to the New York Daily News.
NYCHA Chairman John Rhea said on Wednesday that power will be restored to developments this weekend, but the next day Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: “I’m not sure we can make it.”
Damage from Sandy knocked out power – and heat – to many NYCHA buildings in low-lying areas along the waterfront, like in Red Hook, Gowanus and Coney Island, as well as buildings in Far Rockaway, Queens, and the lower East Side and Chinatown.
According to the Daily News, 13,000 public housing residents were still in the dark, and cold, on Thursday.
According to the paper, Bloomberg said that heat should arrive “sometime early next week.”
According to Salon, some of the horrors of public housing complexes post-Sandy have included seniors trapped in their units because of non-working elevators, strong smells of urine and feces in buildings without working plumbing, not to mention almost-freezing temperatures at night. Many residents have said that no one from a city agency has come to check up on them.
