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Bloomberg Expects Subway Service To Be 90% Restored Tomorrow
By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 3, 2012
Modified Nov 3, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 3, 2012
Modified Nov 3, 2012
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After spending some time getting yelled at by Far Rockaway residents this morning, Mayor Bloomberg is ready to give his latest update on the city's post-Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. We'll update the post once he's done speaking. Watch below!
Update: Bloomberg had some very good news for commuters during his press conference today: "Almost all MTA subway service, around 80% of the system, is now restored. It should be up to 90% by tomorrow." And he lauded Con Ed for reducing the amount of New Yorkers without power from 40K yesterday to around 194K today.
However, while much of Manhattan has power back, "there are still tens of thousands of customers without steam power, and therefore without heat." Bloomberg cautioned that it was going to get colder in the city over the next couple days (we won't be out of the 40s), and cautioned people to get rid of perishable food and take care of themselves. "We want to get as many people into shelters as we can," he said, noting it would take many months to repair some buildings. "We don't want anyone to think we're out of the woods yet." To that end, there are 25,000 blankets on the way to shelters in the Rockaways, Coney Island, and on Staten Island right now.
He said there had been two more fatalities since yesterday, bringing the total to 42 (there was an earlier count of 43 by the NYPD, but some of those deaths were not attributed to the storm). He also warned that there had been six fires in recent days blamed on candles being used for light at powerless homes.
Sixty-five of the approximately 1750 public schools in the city won't be open on Monday due to building damage and other problems (you can see all the info about which schools here). He criticized LIPA for not acting aggressively enough in helping restore power to the Rockaways. And he noted that the mangled crane on 57th Street was rotated by hand against the side of building today, and tied down; if all goes as planned, 57th Street should be opened back up tonight.
At the end of the press conference, after already shooing away one question about it, Bloomberg finally addressed the question of the marathon, which was cancelled late yesterday, hours after Bloomberg invoked the memory of 9/11 to defend why the city wasn't canceling it in the face of widespread criticism. "I wish that we didnt have a hurricane, and wish we could have had a great event," he said. "Shoulda, woulda, coulda isn't something I deal with. What happened was it became a source of dissension, and we dont need that right now. And hopefully next year we'll have a great event...the spirit of the race is to bring people together, and when it became a divisive issue, I made the decision it should not go on." He concluded: "it's a shame that it had to happen, but we have to do the right thing each time."
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bloomberg
frankenstorm
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hurricane sandy
mayor bloomberg
storm
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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