SANDY’S
DEVASTATION
cal beaches. “The ocean wants to
eat something. We’d rather it eat
the beach before it eats homes.”
‘WE SHOULD HAVE LEFT’
Even as the storm closed in on
the East Coast, New York City still
struggled with its best remaining
tool to protect the populace: the
evacuation of flood zones.
On Saturday night, two days
before Sandy made landfall on
the Jersey Shore, Bloomberg had
told the city that no evacuations
at all were planned, and that a
“sudden surge” of ocean flooding
was unlikely.
“Although we’re expecting a
large surge of water, it is not expected to be a tropical storm or
hurricane-type surge,” Bloomberg said. “With this storm, we’ll
likely see a slow pileup of water
rather than a sudden surge, which
is what you would expect with a
hurricane, and which we saw with
Irene 14 months ago.”
Hours later, the mayor’s rhetoric
shifted dramatically. “If you refuse
to evacuate, you’re not only putting
yourself at risk, but also the first
responders who will have to assist
you in an emergency,” he said.
The Bloomberg administration did
not respond to a request for com-
HUFFINGTON
12.02.12
ment about procedures for warning
coastal residents to evacuate.
Many heeded the mayor’s
evacuation order, but thousands
did not. Some paid with their
lives, as floodwaters engulfed
their homes or swept them to
their deaths in the street. Philip
Ferrante, a pilot who lives on
the south shore of Staten Island,
about 100 feet back from the flood
zone, said he understood why
some in the most dangerous areas
stayed, and called the city’s storm
warnings inadequate.
“On Saturday, the mayor said it
was going to be like Irene and we
didn’t have to evacuate,” said Ferrante, who took a leading role in the
relief effort, gathering supplies and
delivering them to people who’d
stayed in their battered homes. “On
Sunday he’s acting like you should
have evacuated yesterday.”
Adding to the confusion was the
decision by the city to waive the
evacuation order for thousands of
patients and staff at the 40 nursing and adult care homes located
in mandatory evacuation zones.
These facilities, which house the
city’s most vulnerable population,
were told by the city’s Office of
Emergency Management to “shelter in place,” or stay put.
Samantha Levine, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office,
said in an email that city officials