Kruger Blasts City For Lindsay-Style Blizzard Debacle


by on Dec 28th, 2010
Carl Kruger

Source: NYS Senate

State Senator Carl Kruger slammed the city for its “colossal failure” in responding to the weekend’s blizzard, which left most of the area’s main roadways and many of its side streets impassible.

Kruger is demanding that the City Council’s sanitation committee immediately hold emergency hearings to discern the cause of the bungled response, which left the FDNY EMS with a three-hour delay for critical cases like heart attacks, and a 12-hour delay for non-critical cases as emergency vehicles struggled to get through streets.

“At 1 p.m. today there was already a backlog of 1,300 critical calls. How many people are going to die today because our streets haven’t been cleared?” Sen. Kruger asked in a statement yesterday. “When emergency patients have to be transported to the hospital on foot in New York City, you know you’ve got a problem. This is not a MASH unit in the Korean War.”

The state senator likened the city’s response to that of the “Lindsay debacle” in 1969, when Mayor John Linsday’s delayed actions paralyzed the city after a February blizzard. He also blasted the Office of Emergency Management’s “foolish” decision to deny the FDNY’s request to declare a state of emergency.

“This is an outrage,” Sen. Kruger said. “Forecasters predicted this blizzard days in advance. There was clearly insufficient planning, and New Yorkers are paying too steep a price. Someone has to be accountable.”

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  • http://twitter.com/nicktherat nick the rat

    can we hold kruger responsible?

  • RomanM

    That’s why he got my vote.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      It’s so very easy for him to lambaste the mayor. (who certainly deserves it) But how about putting some real pressure on the city? After all, he heads the Finance committee in the NY Senate.

  • Bloomymessedup

    My son has been sick since Christmas and we have no way to get him to a doctor or hospital. There are 6 foot drifts in the middle of our street, no vehicles can get through. Where is the city when we need help?

    • http://twitter.com/nicktherat nick the rat

      telling you to spy on your neighbor, be scared of terrorist, dont question authority, call people who question it names, counting money, bending over for the corporate world, enjoying their third illegal term…i can go on.

      hope your kid gets through this without the city killing him

      • Comments

        i love you nick the rat

  • Louise

    When will service resume at Sheepshead Bay Station. I need to get to work!!!

  • Louise

    There has been no plowing of Ocean Parkway and Murdock Court as well as the service roads off of Ocean Parkway
    No one can get a car out. People can’t get to work!
    This never happened before. We have had big snowfalls before and never had to wait more than 24 hours before the first plows to come through.
    We are going on a 3rd day without seeing a snowplow!
    Where are our public servants?

  • ed

    Instead of holding “emergency hearings” and issuing statments, EVERY elected official from NYC and their staffs (plus all those guys standing behind the mayor whenever he makes statements) should be out there with shovels helping to clear the snow in the “outer boroughs.” And, by the way, I still want to see a photo of what the mayor’s block looks like today (East 79 St. around 5th Ave.)

  • Anonymous

    I hope the lawsuits pile up so high Bloomberg has to leave the country. I’d like to see him under a snowplow!

  • Irisha

    Kruger is at his best when taking illegal contributions and/or bribes. but i have to agree with the criminal here.

  • Guest

    Hey, what happened to the small mom’s and pop’s plows. Last year there were a lot of them cleaning small and side streets. Did the city not use them this year?