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Volume 82, Number 22 $1.00
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Hudson Square, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
November 3 - 7, 2012
Area to get power back, but will city get surge barriers? BY LINCOLN ANDERSON As anxious Downtowners stuck in the dark continued to be left in the dark about when power would be restored, on Thursday morning Con Edison reported that electricity would be turned back on by sometime this Saturday. Later in the day, a Con Ed spokesperson told this paper that the lights would be back on by 11 p.m. Saturday. Similarly, Downtown residents whose land lines were still work-
Photo by Sam Spokony
National Guardsmen unload boxes of FEMA-supplied rations outside Smith Houses, where hundreds of desperate locals had swarmed on Thursday night to get much-needed food and water.
Finally, a response, as Guard trucks rations into Downtown BY SAM SPOKONY In a shaky yet mainly successful start to the National Guard presence in Downtown Manhattan following the impact of Hurricane Sandy, on Thursday night hundreds of desperate residents welcomed a massive delivery of food and water outside a Lower East Side public housing complex. The Guardsmen were originally scheduled to arrive to deliver the rations at 1 p.m. that day outside Smith Houses on Catherine St., near Cherry St. — but the people lined up waiting for hours for the drop-off became increasingly agitated until the trucks finally arrived around 6:15 p.m. Despite many harsh words over the lateness of that arrival, the residents
certainly appreciated the vital supplies, as their neighborhood continues to sit in darkness. “We would’ve gone crazy if they didn’t come,” said Tony Chan, 40, who came with his family several blocks from their home on Mott St. to pick up a box full of food and water bottles. Chan explained that, even though other problems still loom large, the rations provided an important lifeline to people like himself, who simply hadn’t been ready for such a difficult aftermath to the storm. Before the delivery, he had no food or water. “The only thing we could’ve eaten was a rat,” Chan joked, as he walked home. Governor Andrew Cuomo had origi-
nally mobilized the National Guard on Oct. 28, the day before the hurricane struck. And on Thursday morning, at the behest of local politicians, Cuomo announced the Guard would be delivering one million meals — supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency — to Downtown Manhattan and affected areas in Brooklyn and Queens. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senator Daniel Squadron, both of whom were part of a group that urged the governor to implement the deliveries, were outside Smith Houses on Thursday night with their aides to help oversee the arrival and hand out
ing or who had cell phone power and access reported that they had received robocalls on Thursday from Con Ed informing that the juice would be switched back on by 11 p.m. Saturday. A Con Ed spokesperson said two adjacent “electrical subdistricts” near Wall St. – serving about 6,500 customers -- would actually be getting power back a day earlier, on
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With the lights out, community switched into ‘Survivor’ mode BY LINCOLN ANDERSON As reality hit home after Monday night's hurricane that an extended blackout was in store, Downtowners who had stayed put began foraging for emergency supplies and figuring out how they were going to make it through the ordeal. With power cut south of 39th St. and cell phones losing their charges, or unable to fi nd a signal,
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there was scant access to information. Walking at the corner of 14th St. and First Ave. late Tuesday afternoon, Mike Schweinsburg, who has worked on many local political campaigns, was starting a northward trek in search of a functioning A.T.M. to get cash. Summing up the chal-
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EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 12
THE SHOW GOES ON PAGE 21