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It’s Christmas Eve and the seventh night of Hanukkah, and four Queens families are spending the night in hotels after being displaced from their homes. And over 8,000 New York and New Jersey residents are also without power.
The American Red Cross said it provided emergency housing to nine adults and two children after their homes were flooded by the storm that pummeled New York City with rain and freezing temperatures on Dec. 22 and 23.
Desiree Ramos Reiner, an external affairs officer with the Red Cross, said the agency was putting the families up through Tuesday and could also offer emergency housing for others. It said that other state and federal agencies will reopen after the holidays and could step in if the families still require assistance.
The Red Cross also says its volunteers are available to provide mental and physical health services to the families if they need them.
Ramos Reiner says that more than a dozen volunteers have stepped in since yesterday.
“I do wanna give a shoutout to our volunteers who have shown up to help these families in so many ways during the holidays,” said Ramos Reiner.
She added that as temperatures drop, there’s an increase in home fires, and called on local families to double check the batteries in their smoke alarms.
The Red Cross has two emergency centers in Queens that are open until 4 p.m. on Dec. 24 to help any residents who need shelter. Ramos Reiner said for other emergency needs, residents should call 311.
Speaking at one of the centers this morning, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had completed a tour of the Queens neighborhoods damaged by the storm. She said this storm was a big one and that she is working with agencies to help people whose homes have been damaged.
“Mother Nature threw the kitchen sink at us this time,” Hochul said. “I’m fully expecting to see the kitchen sink fall out of the sky because we’ve been hit with everything from wind and flash freeze and unprecedented velocity of wind. As well as the snow, ice and flooding.”
Besides the families who have been displaced, thousands of others have lost power due to the severe weather, mostly in New Jersey.
Jersey Central Power and Light said more than 6,000 customers are experiencing outages caused by the severe weather that began early yesterday and ended today.
On Long Island, nearly 1,000 people are without power. According to the Long Island Power Authority, many of those customers are expected to have their power back by this afternoon.
In Con Edison’s service area, which includes the five boroughs and Westchester County, the outages are currently concentrated in Brooklyn and Queens, where high winds took down wires. In Westchester, over 11,000 customers were affected, but the majority of them have had their power restored. Con Edison said it expects the remaining repairs to take place by midafternoon today.
If you’ve been displaced by the storm and need help finding temporary shelter, you can visit the following Red Cross Emergency Centers, open until 4 p.m. today:
Howard Beach:
PS 207 Rockwood Park
159-15 88th St, Queens, NY 11414
Far Rockaway:
Goldie Maple Academy
3-65 Beach 56th St., Queens, NY 11692
To report damage to your home as a result of the winter storm, call 311 or fill out the city’s damage assessment form, available here.
Finally, here’s a list of outage maps:
Con Edison (New York City and Westchester County)
PSEG (Long Island)
PSEG (New Jersey)
Jersey Central Power & Light (New Jersey)
This is an ongoing story, check back in for updates as we receive them over the course of the day.
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