SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Source: JohnnyBarker / Flickr

For some people, Hurricane Sandy came and went, barely disrupting their lives or neighborhoods. Others, especially the elderly living in Brighton Beach and Coney Island, were not nearly as lucky. A report in the New York Daily News chronicles the weeks-long nightmare that elderly New York City Housing Authority residents have faced in Sandy’s aftermath.

Virtual prisoners of their own apartments, scores of seniors were shut in their homes without power, heat, hot water, and medical supplies, and had no one coming by to check in on or assist them. New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio blames the mayor’s office and NYCHA for failing to do a more extensive door to door check of people’s homes affected by shortages of essential needs.

The city claims to have visited more than 65,000 apartments, with 42,000 of those being NYCHA properties. However, de Blasio told The Daily News that the effort wasn’t enough. “They’re missing whole parts of the city. It’s scattershot. We hear it over and over: ‘No one has knocked on our door.’”

Those the city missed include Irine Lombardo, a 74-year-old Coney Island resident forced to evacuate her flood-damaged apartment to a friend in Brighton Beach. During the storm, she lost her oxygen tanks, and when forced to relocat to a friend’s fifth floor apartment in Brighton Beach, she had no access to electricity, heat, or hot water, leaving her trapped and vulnerable, and without proper medical care.

Irine’s friend, Olga Romanov, told The Daily News that, “Nobody came to us from the city. Nobody came to us from NYCHA.”

Through the combined efforts of de Blasio’s office and volunteers from the Physicians for a National Health Program, Lombardo finally got her oxygen tanks this past Sunday.

It didn’t take long after Hurricane Sandy’s tidal surge pummeled our coastline for the rumor mill to start churning out destruction anecdotes. According to the mill, Kinsgborough Community College was washed away. Its T buildings were in shambles, its iconic lighthouse-crowned MAC building toppled over and parking lots torn asunder.

We’re glad to report that’s not the case, but in the early aftermath, it was hard to say what was going on.

Continue Reading »

Port Sheepshead Marina, nothing but rubble.

Despite more than a week of cleaning, Emmons Avenue’s eastern end, a strip of waterfront condos, bungalows and boating clubs, remains in shambles.

We visited Emmons Avenue’s two waterfront bungalow colonies earlier this week, and, though Hurricane Sandy destroyed several homes and left families for the streets, there had been no visits from FEMA, Red Cross or any examples of the volunteer frenzy other neighborhoods have received.

In the absence of outside help, neighbors banded together to help each other.

Keep reading, and view a photo gallery of the destruction in the bungalow colonies.

The only entrance to Lake Avenue became impassable once water started tumbling down from Emmons Avenue, and debris littered the alleyway.

There is no shortage of heroes that came out of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, but it seems everyone on Lake Avenue agrees that two quick thinking residents of their bungalow colony and a nearby landlord are their first first responders.

The Nostrand Avenue condo building where Lake Avenue residents found refuge from the flood.

One of several Lake Avenue buildings that are now deemed uninhabitable by the Department of Buildings.

When flood waters breached the bulkhead of Sheepshead Bay and engulfed Emmons Avenue, it advanced forward, rushing into the bungalow colony alleys located below street level. With no drainage systems, approximately 60 residents of Lake Avenue – just off Nostrand Avenue and Emmons Avenue – realized their one-story bungalows were about to be submerged.

“All of a sudden the water started pouring into the house. My 94-year-old father and I live in the house together,” said Lake Avenue resident Wendy Mitchell.

That’s when neighbors Missy Haggerty and Peter McCandless rushed out of their homes and began banging on doors, telling people to get out. Some were sleeping or in the middle of eating dinner, and looked up the block to see a waterfall rushing down the steps into the colony’s dead end alley.

“I got out and I’m trying to hold the door open [for my 94-year-old father] and Peter got him out finally,” Mitchell said. “When we first left, the water was up to the knees. By the time we got about five houses down it was under my arms. I’m five-foot-five and it was under my arms.”

Mitchell said she never would have been able to get out of there if it weren’t for Missy and Peter – and the landlord of a nearby building that abuts the alley.

Continue Reading »

The National Weather Service has issued a High Wind Warning beginning at 2:00 p.m. today, lasting until 4:00 a.m. on Thursday, and a Coastal Flood Warning this afternoon through tomorrow morning. City officials are recommending that residents of areas hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy stay with family, friends or at an evacuation center until it’s over.

Cold weather, rain and high wind gusts are expected. Though it won’t be nearly as strong as Sandy’s fury, wind speeds are expected to reach 40 miles per hour.

All parks and beaches will be closed from noon today until midnight Thursday.

“If you live in a low-lying or a flood prone area, an area already impacted by the recent hurricane, or have concerns about flooding, consider staying with friends or family outside affected areas or in a NYC evacuation shelter.”

Sheltersare currently open. Locate the nearest shelter by visiting this site. If you need assistance with transportation, call 311 for help. All evacuation centers have at least one wheelchair accessible entrance.

With Hurricane Sandy relief efforts well underway, the largest challenge now is getting people – especially seniors and the disabled – out of homes lacking heat and hot water as temperatures continue to drop.

To help with that, the city has expanded the number of daytime warming centers available, including many in Southern Brooklyn. The complete list can be found here.

Unfortunately, most of those centers close at 4:00 p.m., leaving residents with few options for the coldest night time hours.

Currently, there are only four overnight shelters available, which you can find here.

Need help getting to any of these shelters? The city is operating shuttle buses in select locations. For all of Brooklyn’s thousands of residents across the borough, they have just one: MCU Park (Cyclones Stadium) Parking Lot at 1904 Surf Avenue at West 17th Street, which will take you to John Jay High School at 237 Seventh Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets.

However, during a press conference at P.S. 195 in Manhattan Beach yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said getting residents to those shelters is a top priority, and residents can get transportation from the Office of Emergency Management by calling 311. They also say if you begin to feel the effects of hypothermia – beginning with uncontrollable shivering – you should call 911 or flag down a police car, which will get you to a heating center immediately.

Please, don’t take another risk. The cold is poised to be more deadly that Sandy itself. If you have no heat or hot water, find a place to stay that does. Whether it’s the home of family or friends, a welcoming neighbor, or a city shelter – get out, and get to a warm place.

The city has dispatched buses to pick up residents lacking heat and hot water and taking them to warming centers that are open overnight.

Unfortunately, the buses don’t have many pick up points. Here in Brooklyn, there’s just one – in Coney Island. If you can make your way to the MCU Park (Cyclones Stadium) Parking Lot at 1904 Surf Avenue at West 17th Street, a bus will take you to John Jay High School, 237 Seventh Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets.

Sound like a schlep? Certainly. Should the city provide more pick up locations? Absolutely. Regardless, don’t brush it off. If you’re in a home without heat or hot water, go through the trouble of packing a bag and getting to the shelter. It’s much better than hypothermia, and you’ll live to complain about it later.

Last bus leaves at 9:00 p.m. A full list of overnight warming centers and bus pickup locations can be found here.

As Sheepshead Bay and Southern Brooklyn continue to cope with the damage from Hurricane Sandy, those without heat or hot water face a new challenge: falling temperatures, and a possible nor’easter later this week. Those without heat – especially seniors – are strongly encouraged to find a place to stay until temperatures swing back up next weekend.

From the New York Times:

In New York, 30,000 to 40,000 people, mainly residents of public housing, will have to find new homes, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Sunday.

… Temperatures throughout the region fell early Sunday into the 30s, and the National Weather Service issued a freeze watch on Sunday for parts of New Jersey, including the coast, where many residents remained without heat. Officials have urged them to head to shelters.

Mr. Bloomberg called the cold the “most pressing” challenge in the recovery. The city has opened heating shelters and is passing out blankets to New Yorkers without electricity.

“You can die from being cold,” Mr. Bloomberg said Sunday. “You can die from fires started from candles or stoves. Please go to the local disaster site. If you don’t know where to go, stop a cop on the side of the road and ask.”

Adding to the concerns, forecasters now say that a northeaster could move in by midweek, hitting the already battered coastal areas with heavy winds and strong waves. Freezing temperatures are also expected.

On Twitter, the mayor’s office said that recovery efforts today are focused on checking in with those in hard hit areas that may be without heat or hot water, and encouraging them to move to shelters.

Mayor: today we’re focusing on checking in on people and seeing who else may need a warm place to sleep for the night. #Sandy

— NYC Mayor’s Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) November 4, 2012

Five warming centers are currently open in Brooklyn, and a list of locations and times can be found here.

With the drop in temperatures this weekend, the city is providing warming center in the five boroughs for a place to get out of the cold. Sure, there are still thousands of residents in Brooklyn who lost heat and hot water during Hurricane Sandy, but, hey we get one, just one. Oh, and it closes early.

Here’s the complete list.

Volunteers sort clothing and other goods dropped off at Warbasse (Photo: Alex Morozov)

Hundreds of seniors and other residents remain trapped in Coney Island’s major co-op developments, and efforts to help them are hampered by supply shortages and language barriers.

Volunteers sort clothing and other goods dropped off at Warbasse (Photo: Alex Morozov)

When Esther grabbed me by the arm, pulled me in for a hug and told me I was the only person who had come to see her in days, I cried. This was an 80-year-old woman living on the 19th floor of Building 3 in the Luna Park co-ops. While all of the other buildings have electricity and some have water, Esther and anyone else above the 10th floor does not.

Hesitant to open the door at first, she eventually revealed that she didn’t prepare well and didn’t have water. She was starting to feel lightheaded. When I saw her face-to-face, she could only ask about her 82-year-old brother in Building 5; she didn’t know that his building had power and water.

Bensonhurst Bean food writer David Cohen and I walked up to the 20th floor with as many water bottles as we could carry. Then we made our way down through the dark hallways, knocking on doors and checking in with over the 160 or so mostly Russian-speaking seniors living in Building 3. We ran out of supplies by the 15th floor.

Unable to make the trek down many flights of stairs for food or water, and with few outsiders aware of their plight, the seniors are trapped. In fact, most of the high-rise co-ops west of Ocean Parkway that house a large senior population are without water, heat or electricity. In some cases, they are without all three. The potential of the freezing nor’easter to come along the East Coast early next week makes this situation a deadly one. 

Keep reading, and find out how you can help.