WaPo | The slow pace of recovery from Hurricane Sandy generated frustration
and anger across the New York region Friday as residents struggled with
shortages of fuel, enduring power outages and a sense among those in the
city’s outer boroughs that their suffering was being overlooked.
In Staten Island, where 19 people have died as a result of the
storm, more than in any other New York City borough, exasperation at the
lack of city, state and federal assistance mixed with bitterness and
despair.
“I don’t see the Corps of Engineers,” Jim Brennan, a retired New York
firefighter, said as he stepped over fragments of boat hulls and other
debris blown onto his seafront lawn. “No National Guard. No Red Cross.
No FEMA. No [New York Department of Environmental Protection]. No
garbage trucks. American flags are flying all over this neighborhood.
Where is our government?”
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) canceled
Sunday’s running of the New York City Marathon, yielding to critics who
said it was insensitive to host a sporting event while authorities were
still pulling the dead from the storm’s wreckage.
“While life in
much of our city is getting back to normal, for New Yorkers that have
lost loved ones, the storm left a wound that I think will never heal,”
Bloomberg told reporters earlier Friday. “For those that lost homes or
businesses, recovery will be long and difficult.”
