New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo: Nor'easter made 'bad situation worse'

By Shashank Bengali and Joseph Serna

Nov. 8, 2012 12 AM PT

NEW YORK -- The double hit of Superstorm Sandy and an early season nor’easter could cost New York state up to $33 billion, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who called utility companies’ response to the emergency a “failure.”

Nearly 300,000 New Yorkers still had no electricity Thursday morning, and about a third of metropolitan New York’s gas stations do not have gas. A nor’easter storm that brought high winds, freezing temperatures and piles of snow has slowed the region’s recovery effort and made a “bad situation worse,” Cuomo said at a televised news conference.

The cost of coming back – from Maine to the Carolinas and inland to the Ohio Valley – could reach $50 billion, he estimated.

Sandy highlighted the vulnerabilities of the state’s electrical grid and oil commerce, Cuomo said.

FULL COVERAGE: East Coast hit by deadly storm

“I believe they were unprepared, I believe the system is archaic,” Cuomo said of the utility companies. “Part of it is the fact these utilities are a monopoly. You’re unhappy with a utility company, who do you fire? It’s a nameless, faceless bureaucracy.”

Representatives from National Grid U.S. and the Long Island Power Authority, two major New York utilities, did not immediately return calls for comment.

A spokeswoman for Con Edison, which supplies all of New York City, said “our focus continues on our massive and unprecedented restoration effort. We appreciate the state’s leadership and assistance.”

The powerful Sandy devastated seaside towns in New Jersey and New York, was responsible for more than 110 deaths and forced the shutdown of oil refineries and terminals in the region.

Thousands of utility workers from companies across the country have flown into the region to help repair the power grid, where local utility companies have been using up months-worth of stored equipment in days. Long Island, one of the hardest hit areas from the two storms, has thousands without electricity. It could be days if not another week at least before power is back.

The Long Island Power Authority reported that repairs were slowed because of the nor’easter, and crews have to go house to house assessing the damage before reconnecting utilities.

“They ran out of power poles. You think poles would be something a utility company would want to have,” Cuomo snapped at the news conference. “They have failed consumers. The management has failed consumers. It is that simple…. We gave them a franchise. They represented themselves as experts at doing this and they failed and they should be held accountable for their failure.”

Residents there have started an online petition to have the state end its contract with the Long Island Power Authority.

INTERACTIVE: Before and after Sandy

Relief agencies that were forced to shutter operations in Wednesday’s nor’easter reopened in sunny but brisk conditions Thursday afternoon in Staten Island, hard-hit by Sandy.

Before four inches of snow fell in the Staten Island beach-side community of New Dorp, the Federal Emergency Management Agency abandoned a tent where it had been seeing about 300 claim applicants a day, said Clete Strayer, manager of the agency’s disaster recovery center here.

On Thursday, next to a snow-crusted field, Sandy victims again lined up for relief supplies, warm meals and insurance consultations as FEMA staff reinstalled tables and heating units to resume work.

“We’re fine if Mother Nature leaves us alone,” Strayer said.

If the snow was a nuisance for relief operations, it was not as bad as many weather-worn residents had feared.

Cuomo said it will take months to get New York back to normal. Restoring power and reconnecting the veins of oil distribution are the short-term issues. But New Yorkers are going to have to rethink about how ruined towns should be rebuilt, he said.

“When we built New York, we didn’t think about floods, about storms. We didn’t have hurricanes and floods,” the governor said. “Extreme weather is here to stay. Climate change is a reality. Political gridlock has held us back too long…. Maybe Mother Nature is telling us something. One time, two times, three times. There are places that are going to be victimized by storms. We know that now.”

Residents of blue-collar Staten Island have left their battered communities for shelters or the homes of others. In Midland Beach, Norma McCarthy, a mother of two teenage boys, said she remained in her flooded home because her relatives’ homes in New Jersey and Queens also were without power.

“We don’t really have anywhere else to go,” McCarthy said.

She applied for FEMA assistance the day after Sandy hit but said she hasn’t heard back. Her insurance company told her before the storm that she wasn’t eligible for flood insurance -- even though her home sits a block from the beach.

After a brief meeting with an Allstate insurance agent at the relief center, McCarthy said she had no idea whether her home could be repaired but that her family planned to stay there as long as they could. She and others were buoyed by forecasts that temperatures would climb back to near 60 degrees over the weekend.

“We’re trying to tough it out,” she said.

Cuomo said the recover is going to cost more money than the state can afford.

The state has tried to pull itself out of budget shortfalls the last two years, and a FEMA offer to cover 75% of the disaster’s costs was “unacceptable,” the governor said.

“If they think any local government can pay any more toward this storm, they’re wrong about that,” he said. “We pay a lot of taxes toward Washington … and I want respect for our taxpayers.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also spoke at a news conference Thursday, where he said the nor’easter left much of the state unscathed outside of about a dozen road closures and power outages. About 400,000 people don’t have power statewide, with about 160,000 of those from the nor’easter storm.

To alleviate pressure on traditional rail lines and tunnels into New York, rides on ferries to and from the state are free.

The National Guard has sent thousands of soldiers to Red Cross centers, cleanup sites and refueling stations. Bulldozers are helping to clean up the Long Beach islands, he said. The level of cooperation with the force has “been unprecedented.”

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