Thousands remain homeless, millions still without power at Hurricane Sandy recovery continues
Government leaders are turning their attention to finding long-term housing for tens of thousands of people left homeless as 1.4 million residents or businesses without power.
Flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy on Emmons Ave, Brooklyn, NY 2012 photo Vicpeters
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said trailers from FEMA might help some people, but it would be just one way victims of Sandy could find shelter. Others might move to hotels or other temporary housing.
“There are some local governments that will want trailers. Many communities on Long Island use trailers during situations like this. And they’re frequently seen. So some communities, it’s going to be a community by community option,” Cuomo said at a Monday press conference.
There are still more than 1.4 million homes and businesses without power, more than 115,000 in New York City alone. Sandy has left as many as 40,000 New Yorkers homeless, according to city officials. About half of those people live in public housing.
FEMA has already dispensed close to $200 million in emergency housing assistance and put 34,000 people in New York and New Jersey in hotels and motels. Still, city and state officials have not laid out an official plan with specifics to move the homeless into long-term housing in an already congested area.
“It’s not going to be a simple task. It’s going to be one of the most complicated and long-term recovery efforts in U.S. history,” said Mark Merritt, president of Witt Associates, a Washington crisis management consulting firm founded by former FEMA director James Lee Witt.
Compounding the immediate need for housing is a nor’easter that is expected to bring rain and high winds on Wednesday to the areas hit hard by Sandy.
“There’s always a chance of there being a little snow. But right now, it looks like most of the rainfall from this system will be confined to coastal areas. We expect most of it, especially across the mid-Atlantic region that were hit by Sandy, to fall in the form of rain,” Brian Korty, a forecaster at the National Weather Service, told ABC News.
