Cuomo calls on businesses to help with storm recovery
Cuomo calls on businesses to help with storm recovery
0 Comments
'We need everything,' he says
1:34PM EST November 6. 2012 - NEW YORK — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Tuesday called on major corporations to aid recovery efforts from Superstorm Sandy."We need everything," said Cuomo during a news conference shortly after noon. "We request corporate America to come forward and be helpful."
Some corporations have already jumped in with help, said Cuomo, who welcomed a new contribution from Home Depot.
Tony Lemma, a regional vice president for the home and construction supplies and building chain, said Home Depot was providing 10 trucks filled with mops, brooms, shovels, batteries, work gloves, cleaning solutions and other supplies to New York and New Jersey.
Each state will receive half of everything. Additionally, the Home Depot Foundation is donating $1 million to Sandy recovery efforts, said Lemma.
"We've got your back," he said.
From trying to figure out where people will live to how they will be able to vote and when all the lights will finally come on, government officials are still facing multiple fronts in the efforts to recover from Superstorm Sandy. All that, and there's another storm coming.
"Things are a little hectic in the New York City area," Cuomo said, adding that storm dislocations and recovery efforts were having an impact at polling places.
"Whatever your (political) preference today, please vote" said Cuomo. "Your patience at the polling places is required, as it has been all week long."
New York officials had one eye on a new storm expected to hit the New York City metropolitan region Wednesday.
A nor'easter packing heavy rain and gusts of 50 to 60 mph was headed for the area, threatening more flooding and power outages that could undo some of the repairs made in the past few days.
But by Tuesday afternoon forecasters said the storm was not going to be as bad as expected.
Still, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a precautionary closings of all parks, playgrounds and beaches, along with a temporary restriction on outdoor construction.
The storm was also to bring colder temperatures than normal, which means the storm could at times drop sleet on the branches of already weakened trees, Bloomberg said. All parks, playgrounds and beaches will be closed from noon Wednesday until noon Thursday, he said.
Contractors have been instructed to secure construction sites, and all outdoor construction must cease at noon Wednesday, said Bloomberg.
The state on Tuesday pre-placed search-and-rescue teams in the hardest hit areas, said Howard Glaser, New York State's operations chief and an advisor to Cuomo. National Weather Service forecasts as of noon showed the new storm may track east of the city, directing the strongest potential winds and flooding toward eastern Long Island, he said.
"Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. That's what we're doing," said Cuomo.
Where to house potentially tens of thousands of people left homeless by the storm is the most pressing crisis, as cold weather sets in.
"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 Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt.
FEMA said it has already dispensed close to $200 million in emergency housing assistance and has put up 34,000 people in New York and New Jersey in hotels and motels. But local, state and federal officials have yet to lay out a specific, comprehensive plan for finding them long-term places to live.
And given the scarcity and high cost of housing there and the lack of open space, it could prove a monumental undertaking.
Sandy killed more 100 people in 10 states but vented the worst of its fury on New Jersey and New York. A week after the storm slammed the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, more than 1 million homes and businesses remained without power.
Contributing: Associated Press.
end quote from:
