- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
Citywide- Hurricane Sandy Citywide Operations
- Thread starter SoHoTruckin20
- Start date
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
Hats Off to the gentleman from the hotel who refused to evict evacuated residents from the hotel so those w/reservations could stay there this weekend for the marathon.....eff them & the marathon if they have that much energy to spare they should go to Rockaway & help clean up & bail basements etc. .................................................... http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/171675/si-hotel-owner-refuses-to-evict-evacuees-to-honor-marathon-runners--reservations/?ap=1&MP4
I got back home Wednesday after me, 347, and a few others did more or less 36 hours straight of work. The FDNY handled 22,300 alarms in 48 hours. That's from 0001 Monday to 2359 Tuesday. We got our asses kicked, but good. I'm just hopeful things have started getting back to something close to normal, but it doesn't look like that will happen for a while.
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
FEMA Taps Private Vendors to Meet Sandy Victim's Needs
by Michael Patrick Leahy 3 Nov 2012
FEMA's vaunted "lean forward" strategy that called for advanced staging of supplies for emergency distribution failed to live up to its billing in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
In fact, the agency appears to have been completely unprepared to distribute bottled water to Hurricane Sandy victims when the storm hit this Monday. In contrast to its stated policy, FEMA failed to have any meaningful supplies of bottled water -- or any other supplies, for that matter -- stored in nearby facilities as it had proclaimed it would on its website. This was the case despite several days advance warning of the impending storm.
FEMA only began to solicit bids for vendors to provide bottled water for distribution to Hurricane Sandy victims on Friday, sending out a solicitation request for 2.3 million gallons of bottled water at the FedBizOpps.gov website. Bidding closed at 4:30 pm eastern.
Breitbart News spoke with contracting officer Annette Wright, who said that the winning vendor would be required to deliver the 2.3 million gallons of bottled water to an East Farmingdale, New York distribution center that was listed in the solicitation request by Monday, November 5th. Ms. Wright was unable to say when or how the water would be delivered from the distribution center to needy Hurricane Sandy victims in New Jersey, Staten Island, Long Island, and other boroughs of New York City. Vendors "are currently being evaluated," she said, and when the vendors are announced, they will provide information on how local distribution will occur.
by Michael Patrick Leahy 3 Nov 2012
FEMA's vaunted "lean forward" strategy that called for advanced staging of supplies for emergency distribution failed to live up to its billing in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
In fact, the agency appears to have been completely unprepared to distribute bottled water to Hurricane Sandy victims when the storm hit this Monday. In contrast to its stated policy, FEMA failed to have any meaningful supplies of bottled water -- or any other supplies, for that matter -- stored in nearby facilities as it had proclaimed it would on its website. This was the case despite several days advance warning of the impending storm.
FEMA only began to solicit bids for vendors to provide bottled water for distribution to Hurricane Sandy victims on Friday, sending out a solicitation request for 2.3 million gallons of bottled water at the FedBizOpps.gov website. Bidding closed at 4:30 pm eastern.
Breitbart News spoke with contracting officer Annette Wright, who said that the winning vendor would be required to deliver the 2.3 million gallons of bottled water to an East Farmingdale, New York distribution center that was listed in the solicitation request by Monday, November 5th. Ms. Wright was unable to say when or how the water would be delivered from the distribution center to needy Hurricane Sandy victims in New Jersey, Staten Island, Long Island, and other boroughs of New York City. Vendors "are currently being evaluated," she said, and when the vendors are announced, they will provide information on how local distribution will occur.
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
Looters & the NYPD
Will the NYCLU face reality?
By HEATHER MAC DONALD
Last Updated: 11:44 PM, November 4, 2012
Posted: 11:00 PM, November 4, 2012
The looting that besmirched New York?s otherwise admirable response to Hurricane Sandy carries a lesson for a trio of federal lawsuits now targeted at the NYPD. Let?s hope that the judge overseeing those suits deigns to take judicial notice.
The loathsome behavior of the looters confirms that the Thin Blue Line is in fact a permanently needed barrier between civilization and anarchy.
The looting was concentrated wherever police precincts were evacuated due to flooding, reported The Wall Street Journal, such as on Coney Island, where the entire 60th Precinct was emptied out, and the 100th Precinct in the Rockaways.
Horrible times: A military convoy preparing last Tuesday to cross the Bay Bridge to the Rockaways, where looting added to the post-Sandy woes.
Wayne Carrington
Horrible times: A military convoy preparing last Tuesday to cross the Bay Bridge to the Rockaways, where looting added to the post-Sandy woes.
Commercial victims included a Laundromat, Radio Shack, Brookstone, and a 99-cent store; the pilfered goodies featured the usual essentials of life so favored by ravaging scum ? plasma TVs and other electronic gadgets, cutting-edge sneakers, booze, pizza, lottery tickets and cash. The Post reported that thugs were also pretending to be utility workers in order to rob homeowners.
Across the city, burglaries had spiked 7 percent from Monday to Thursday over those days last year ? a number likely to rise as evacuees return and tally thefts from their abandoned homes.
We?ve just lived through a demonstration of what happens when the police go away.
This sad evidence deserves notice in the courtroom of federal Judge Shira Scheindlin. That?s where, over the two weeks preceding Sandy?s cataclysmic arrival, the New York Civil Liberties Union and its allies, including attorneys from the elite law firm of Shearman & Sterling, challenged the NYPD?s trespass-affidavit program.
In that program, officers patrol private apartment buildings for trespassers; the advocates claim it results in unconstitutional stops of innocent building residents and their visitors in The Bronx. Hilariously, the NYCLU seeks to appoint itself as overseer of how the department makes trespass stops outside private buildings in The Bronx. Two other pending suits make similar charges against the NYPD in other contexts and seek to radically curtail, if not eliminate entirely, its practice of proactive stops.
Joe Cicciu manages 70 rehabilitated nonprofit residences in the South Bronx, which he helped reclaim from the squalor of the 1970s and the 1980s. ?It was the Wild West out there then, shoot or be shot,? he recalls. During the anti-trespass stop trial, he tallied for the court some of the problems which the NYPD?s trespass patrols have alleviated:
* Groups of young men congregating in front of and in his lobbies, where they smoke marijuana and intimidate the lawful, often elderly, residents.
* Urine in public areas.
* Mailboxes vandalized and used to store drugs.
The trespass program has been ?absolutely effective? in bringing safety and order to his tenants, he said.
Ciccio told Judge Scheindlin that no one has ever complained to him about officer harassment ? a claim that Scheindlin treated with the same contemptuous skepticism that she had directed at top NYPD brass as they outlined to her the department?s assiduous efforts to follow the law.
Ciccio has a warning for the city: ?If we let this trespass-affidavit program go, it will get as bad as it was in the 1970s, fast. All the good work that we in the nonprofit world did to revitalize the South Bronx will go down the drain if we let our guard down.?
The NYCLU and other advocates who make a living suing the NYPD would undoubtedly dismiss such sentiments as hyperbole. And it would be nice to believe that 20 years of proactive policing have affected a cultural shift in the city; perhaps people have now internalized a due respect for the law.
In some cases, maybe that?s true. But talk to any police officer or commander, and he?ll confirm Cicciu?s sense of the volcano that still lurks beneath the surface. The department needs to be at the top of its game at every minute, they will say, using every lever in its power in order to maintain the city?s record-breaking, unmatched crime drop. Lose focus for just an instant, and the lawlessness could all come roaring back.
The post-Sandy looters ? jumping in as soon as the NYPD retreated ? could be the city?s future.
One of the most effective tools that the NYPD has to maintain order is the ability of its officers to lawfully question people engaged in potentially suspicious behavior. As Judge Scheindlin decides whether to grant the NYCLU its desired injunction against the NYPD?s trespass patrol program (and whether to grant even more sweeping relief in the other two anti-stop suits), she should recall the human storm that hit innocents in some of the city?s poorest neighborhoods last week.
Heather Mac Donald is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Instiute?s City Journal and the author of ?Are Cops Racist??
Will the NYCLU face reality?
By HEATHER MAC DONALD
Last Updated: 11:44 PM, November 4, 2012
Posted: 11:00 PM, November 4, 2012
The looting that besmirched New York?s otherwise admirable response to Hurricane Sandy carries a lesson for a trio of federal lawsuits now targeted at the NYPD. Let?s hope that the judge overseeing those suits deigns to take judicial notice.
The loathsome behavior of the looters confirms that the Thin Blue Line is in fact a permanently needed barrier between civilization and anarchy.
The looting was concentrated wherever police precincts were evacuated due to flooding, reported The Wall Street Journal, such as on Coney Island, where the entire 60th Precinct was emptied out, and the 100th Precinct in the Rockaways.
Horrible times: A military convoy preparing last Tuesday to cross the Bay Bridge to the Rockaways, where looting added to the post-Sandy woes.
Wayne Carrington
Horrible times: A military convoy preparing last Tuesday to cross the Bay Bridge to the Rockaways, where looting added to the post-Sandy woes.
Commercial victims included a Laundromat, Radio Shack, Brookstone, and a 99-cent store; the pilfered goodies featured the usual essentials of life so favored by ravaging scum ? plasma TVs and other electronic gadgets, cutting-edge sneakers, booze, pizza, lottery tickets and cash. The Post reported that thugs were also pretending to be utility workers in order to rob homeowners.
Across the city, burglaries had spiked 7 percent from Monday to Thursday over those days last year ? a number likely to rise as evacuees return and tally thefts from their abandoned homes.
We?ve just lived through a demonstration of what happens when the police go away.
This sad evidence deserves notice in the courtroom of federal Judge Shira Scheindlin. That?s where, over the two weeks preceding Sandy?s cataclysmic arrival, the New York Civil Liberties Union and its allies, including attorneys from the elite law firm of Shearman & Sterling, challenged the NYPD?s trespass-affidavit program.
In that program, officers patrol private apartment buildings for trespassers; the advocates claim it results in unconstitutional stops of innocent building residents and their visitors in The Bronx. Hilariously, the NYCLU seeks to appoint itself as overseer of how the department makes trespass stops outside private buildings in The Bronx. Two other pending suits make similar charges against the NYPD in other contexts and seek to radically curtail, if not eliminate entirely, its practice of proactive stops.
Joe Cicciu manages 70 rehabilitated nonprofit residences in the South Bronx, which he helped reclaim from the squalor of the 1970s and the 1980s. ?It was the Wild West out there then, shoot or be shot,? he recalls. During the anti-trespass stop trial, he tallied for the court some of the problems which the NYPD?s trespass patrols have alleviated:
* Groups of young men congregating in front of and in his lobbies, where they smoke marijuana and intimidate the lawful, often elderly, residents.
* Urine in public areas.
* Mailboxes vandalized and used to store drugs.
The trespass program has been ?absolutely effective? in bringing safety and order to his tenants, he said.
Ciccio told Judge Scheindlin that no one has ever complained to him about officer harassment ? a claim that Scheindlin treated with the same contemptuous skepticism that she had directed at top NYPD brass as they outlined to her the department?s assiduous efforts to follow the law.
Ciccio has a warning for the city: ?If we let this trespass-affidavit program go, it will get as bad as it was in the 1970s, fast. All the good work that we in the nonprofit world did to revitalize the South Bronx will go down the drain if we let our guard down.?
The NYCLU and other advocates who make a living suing the NYPD would undoubtedly dismiss such sentiments as hyperbole. And it would be nice to believe that 20 years of proactive policing have affected a cultural shift in the city; perhaps people have now internalized a due respect for the law.
In some cases, maybe that?s true. But talk to any police officer or commander, and he?ll confirm Cicciu?s sense of the volcano that still lurks beneath the surface. The department needs to be at the top of its game at every minute, they will say, using every lever in its power in order to maintain the city?s record-breaking, unmatched crime drop. Lose focus for just an instant, and the lawlessness could all come roaring back.
The post-Sandy looters ? jumping in as soon as the NYPD retreated ? could be the city?s future.
One of the most effective tools that the NYPD has to maintain order is the ability of its officers to lawfully question people engaged in potentially suspicious behavior. As Judge Scheindlin decides whether to grant the NYCLU its desired injunction against the NYPD?s trespass patrol program (and whether to grant even more sweeping relief in the other two anti-stop suits), she should recall the human storm that hit innocents in some of the city?s poorest neighborhoods last week.
Heather Mac Donald is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Instiute?s City Journal and the author of ?Are Cops Racist??
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2010
- Messages
- 857
Sandy exposes big flaws with city's new, $2B billion 911 system
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/doing_number_on_7M4emhxOmVIeQYCBFIybJN?fb_action_ids=4446426712408&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%224446426712408%22%3A300743823363560%7D&action_type_map=%7B%224446426712408%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/doing_number_on_7M4emhxOmVIeQYCBFIybJN?fb_action_ids=4446426712408&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%224446426712408%22%3A300743823363560%7D&action_type_map=%7B%224446426712408%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
Better security needed in Staten Island neighborhoods ravaged by Hurricane Sandy
Staten Island Advance Editorial l
on November 07, 2012 at 12:48 PM, updated November 07, 2012 at 2:
The buildings are there, all equipped with the necessary facilities to accommodate numbers of people. Also there is the will of the borough?s leaders to make use of them in this most dire emergency to solve the sudden housing crisis.
Certainly, because of the situation, the need is there, with hundreds and perhaps many more people left by Hurricane Sandy without a safe place to live, especially as more harsh weather approaches.
But there is one critical ingredient missing in the push to utilize vacant facilities to temporarily house all those Staten Islanders run out of their homes by last week?s monster storm: Trust.
All those people could make good use of the former St. Peter?s Girls High School in St. George or Mount Manresa in Fort Wadsworth or Mount Loretto in Pleasant Plains.
Even the former Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, despite its past as a place where medium-risk criminals were detained for decades, is available since its abandonment by the state Department of Corrections last year.
It even boasts recent, significant infrastructure upgrades and a large kitchen and cafeteria that would serve hundreds of displaced people well for a period of time. All they?d need to do is turn on the juice to power the place again.
But the problem is that as much as Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath brought out an inspiring, heartwarming generosity in so many people here and around the nation, it also brought out the creepy-crawlies.
Staten Island recovering from Hurricane Sandy
Enlarge Michael Oates Piles of wreckage on Cedar Grove Ave and Marine Way. (Staten Island Advance/ Michael Oates) Staten Island Recovering from Hurricane Sandy gallery (9 photos)
Where most people saw the devastation and the hardship many people in the beachfront neighborhoods were suffering, a number of others saw an opportunity to enrich themselves even at the expense of those whose lives had already been shattered.
As happens after every catastrophe, they?ve been showing up in the hardest-hit areas in this borough like toned-down versions of the walking dead looking for easy pickin?s.
They?ve become so brazen in this primitive, almost post-apocalyptic setting that they?ve taken to walking onto homeowners? property and into people?s homes even when the homeowners are present. When confronted, they offer some lame excuse.
It?s hard to overstate how despicable they are.
No wonder residents don?t want to leave, even to go to the safety, warmth and light of a temporary shelter.
State Sen. Andrew Lanza said, ?We are looking at the inventory of what?s out there throughout the borough We have around 500 people in shelters [now].?
He added, ?The big unknown is how many people are remaining in their homes, homes that are essentially uninhabitable, people who, by Friday or next week, when the weather gets colder and the rains come, are going to come to the realization that they can no longer stay where they are.?
He conceded there could be thousands, and said, ?We want to be ready for them.?
So getting access to use one or more of these larger buildings suitable for housing many people is critical to that readiness.
Still, while there may be a shift by some storm victims to take officials up on their offer, many people will choose to remain with their damaged and/or dark homes until they feel that it?s safe to leave them unattended, lest the predators inflict further misery on them.
We urge Mr. Lanza, Borough President James Molinaro and other officials wrestling with this housing problem to find a way to restore that trust in our community and bring these suffering folks some peace of mind about the security of their homes.
... ............................ It may not help the housing situation but as far as looters.... "YOU LOOT ..WE SHOOT" ! ...F U M F !
Staten Island Advance Editorial l
on November 07, 2012 at 12:48 PM, updated November 07, 2012 at 2:
The buildings are there, all equipped with the necessary facilities to accommodate numbers of people. Also there is the will of the borough?s leaders to make use of them in this most dire emergency to solve the sudden housing crisis.
Certainly, because of the situation, the need is there, with hundreds and perhaps many more people left by Hurricane Sandy without a safe place to live, especially as more harsh weather approaches.
But there is one critical ingredient missing in the push to utilize vacant facilities to temporarily house all those Staten Islanders run out of their homes by last week?s monster storm: Trust.
All those people could make good use of the former St. Peter?s Girls High School in St. George or Mount Manresa in Fort Wadsworth or Mount Loretto in Pleasant Plains.
Even the former Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, despite its past as a place where medium-risk criminals were detained for decades, is available since its abandonment by the state Department of Corrections last year.
It even boasts recent, significant infrastructure upgrades and a large kitchen and cafeteria that would serve hundreds of displaced people well for a period of time. All they?d need to do is turn on the juice to power the place again.
But the problem is that as much as Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath brought out an inspiring, heartwarming generosity in so many people here and around the nation, it also brought out the creepy-crawlies.
Staten Island recovering from Hurricane Sandy
Enlarge Michael Oates Piles of wreckage on Cedar Grove Ave and Marine Way. (Staten Island Advance/ Michael Oates) Staten Island Recovering from Hurricane Sandy gallery (9 photos)
Where most people saw the devastation and the hardship many people in the beachfront neighborhoods were suffering, a number of others saw an opportunity to enrich themselves even at the expense of those whose lives had already been shattered.
As happens after every catastrophe, they?ve been showing up in the hardest-hit areas in this borough like toned-down versions of the walking dead looking for easy pickin?s.
They?ve become so brazen in this primitive, almost post-apocalyptic setting that they?ve taken to walking onto homeowners? property and into people?s homes even when the homeowners are present. When confronted, they offer some lame excuse.
It?s hard to overstate how despicable they are.
No wonder residents don?t want to leave, even to go to the safety, warmth and light of a temporary shelter.
State Sen. Andrew Lanza said, ?We are looking at the inventory of what?s out there throughout the borough We have around 500 people in shelters [now].?
He added, ?The big unknown is how many people are remaining in their homes, homes that are essentially uninhabitable, people who, by Friday or next week, when the weather gets colder and the rains come, are going to come to the realization that they can no longer stay where they are.?
He conceded there could be thousands, and said, ?We want to be ready for them.?
So getting access to use one or more of these larger buildings suitable for housing many people is critical to that readiness.
Still, while there may be a shift by some storm victims to take officials up on their offer, many people will choose to remain with their damaged and/or dark homes until they feel that it?s safe to leave them unattended, lest the predators inflict further misery on them.
We urge Mr. Lanza, Borough President James Molinaro and other officials wrestling with this housing problem to find a way to restore that trust in our community and bring these suffering folks some peace of mind about the security of their homes.
... ............................ It may not help the housing situation but as far as looters.... "YOU LOOT ..WE SHOOT" ! ...F U M F !
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
OK so hynes & brown were spinning their wheels about being severe w/looters.....where are we going ?....what a clown show! ................. Most Hurricane Sandy looting cases tossed out
Only seven of 22 Brooklyn looting cases will be criminally prosecuted. Five of 15 Queens cases have led to felony indictments so far.
By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, November 19, 2012, 8:25 PM
Coney Island Looting -- level one mobilization was called in the confines of 60 /61 pct in regards to looting. Several arrests were made. (Joe Marino for New York Daily News)
Joe Marino for New York Daily News
Police detain men after reports of looting in Coney Island following Superstorm Sandy. At least half of the criminal cases related to looting after the storm have been thrown out of court.
At least half the post-Sandy looting busts have been tossed out, despite much grandstanding on the part of Brooklyn and Queens DAs, the Daily News has learned.
One of the most publicized looting incidents ? in which 16 people were rounded up for raiding a Coney Island Key Foods the day after the storm ? resulted in just two indictments for third-degree burglary, records show.
Six other cases were dismissed by a Brooklyn grand jury late last week, and eight were knocked down to trespass raps, which are violations, not crimes.
?The police took an already tragic situation and made it worse by falsely charging people who were only out to help their family and friends,? said Robert Marinelli, who represented three men whose cases were dropped.
Marinelli said his clients were looking for a place to power their phones when police lassoed them near the already-looted market.
When the suspects were arraigned, Brooklyn prosecutors took a hard line, asking for exorbitant bails ranging between $20,000 and $100,000.
?The people are going to prosecute these cases to the fullest extent possible,? assistant district attorney Eric Sonnenschein said.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown likewise promised ?zero tolerance for looters who would exploit a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy for their own personal gain.?
Only seven of 22 Brooklyn looting cases will be criminally prosecuted. In Queens ? where the cases are progressing more slowly ? five of 15 Queens cases have led to felony indictments so far, prosecutors said Monday.
In the Rockaways, at least 15 people were arrested for breaking into a string of stores in at least seven separate incidents throughout the storm-ravaged peninsula. A grand jury declined to indict three of those cases, and six cases are still pending.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hurr....7#ixzz2CkApwhp5
.......These were the actual arrests made.....what about the large number of looters that were NOT arrested ?
Only seven of 22 Brooklyn looting cases will be criminally prosecuted. Five of 15 Queens cases have led to felony indictments so far.
By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, November 19, 2012, 8:25 PM
Coney Island Looting -- level one mobilization was called in the confines of 60 /61 pct in regards to looting. Several arrests were made. (Joe Marino for New York Daily News)
Joe Marino for New York Daily News
Police detain men after reports of looting in Coney Island following Superstorm Sandy. At least half of the criminal cases related to looting after the storm have been thrown out of court.
At least half the post-Sandy looting busts have been tossed out, despite much grandstanding on the part of Brooklyn and Queens DAs, the Daily News has learned.
One of the most publicized looting incidents ? in which 16 people were rounded up for raiding a Coney Island Key Foods the day after the storm ? resulted in just two indictments for third-degree burglary, records show.
Six other cases were dismissed by a Brooklyn grand jury late last week, and eight were knocked down to trespass raps, which are violations, not crimes.
?The police took an already tragic situation and made it worse by falsely charging people who were only out to help their family and friends,? said Robert Marinelli, who represented three men whose cases were dropped.
Marinelli said his clients were looking for a place to power their phones when police lassoed them near the already-looted market.
When the suspects were arraigned, Brooklyn prosecutors took a hard line, asking for exorbitant bails ranging between $20,000 and $100,000.
?The people are going to prosecute these cases to the fullest extent possible,? assistant district attorney Eric Sonnenschein said.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown likewise promised ?zero tolerance for looters who would exploit a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy for their own personal gain.?
Only seven of 22 Brooklyn looting cases will be criminally prosecuted. In Queens ? where the cases are progressing more slowly ? five of 15 Queens cases have led to felony indictments so far, prosecutors said Monday.
In the Rockaways, at least 15 people were arrested for breaking into a string of stores in at least seven separate incidents throughout the storm-ravaged peninsula. A grand jury declined to indict three of those cases, and six cases are still pending.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hurr....7#ixzz2CkApwhp5
.......These were the actual arrests made.....what about the large number of looters that were NOT arrested ?
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
Paramedics union demands FDNY?s EMS chief resign over Sandy fiasco
11/25/12 10:58:21
City medics are demanding the resignation of EMS boss Abdo Nahmod, claiming he mismanaged the response to Superstorm Sandy.
First responders say medical care devolved into chaos as the hurricane?s floodwaters swamped EMS stations and paralyzed ambulances ? sometimes stranding medics on their roofs ? all because the FDNY failed to follow its own hurricane plan.
The two unions representing EMTs/paramedics and EMS officers last week voted ?no confidence? in Chief Nahmod and called for his immediate ouster, according to copies of the resolution found on the FDNY/EMS Rant Web site and the Facebook page of a Local 2507 executive.
STRANDED: Two intrepid EMTs can only wait for help atop an ambulance in the Rockaways, as others are forced to use a pickup truck to evacuate a patient as the FDNY?s response to Hurricane Sandy descended into chaos.
Nahmod ?jeopardized the safety of the public and his front line . . . by not ordering evacuation of personnel and equipment from flooded stations,? the resolution charges.
EMS workers say stations in flood zones weren?t ordered to relocate until they were already inundated, despite the FDNY?s own hurricane plan that requires crews to begin preparing 72 hours in advance.
In the Rockaways, medics stood on the roof of an ambulance for hours after their station flooded, and one EMT had to swim to safety after winds knocked him off the vehicle.
With ambulances under water and crews stretched thin, firefighters had to haul patients to hospitals in the beds of pickup trucks.
Rank-and-file critics say Nahmod also disregarded department policy to call in off-duty units during major emergencies.
?They should have recalled all members and put everyone on 12-hour shifts to get them in,? one FDNY source told The Post. ?They didn?t even do that until the last minute.?
Stations also reported a lack of food, water and power, although the FDNY?s plan requires supplies to be ready well before hurricane season begins.
Weeks after the storm, medics are still fuming.
?Many personnel feel as if they were left to fend for themselves . . . nobody was steering the ship,? one EMT posted on the Rant message board. ?People have questions. Hopefully, they will get some answers.?
Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano defended Nahmod and the FDNY?s response.
?I ordered all FDNY members ? EMTs, paramedics and firefighters ? to stay in service and in quarters during the storm for as long as possible,? Cassano said in a statement. ?Our members, along with the Police Department, were the last line of defense for the people in the communities we serve,? he said.
?I have the utmost confidence in [Nahmod] and his performance before, during and after Hurricane Sandy.?
Nahmod, a 26-year veteran of EMS with an advanced degree in homeland security, was appointed last year.
He replaced former EMS Chief John Peruggia, who was demoted following the December 2010 blizzard that resulted in a 1,300-call backlog in the 911 system and at least three deaths due to ambulance delays.
kbriquelet@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/drench_warfare_at_ems_H5j2bW3EacqRPoxKUXc0iN
11/25/12 10:58:21
City medics are demanding the resignation of EMS boss Abdo Nahmod, claiming he mismanaged the response to Superstorm Sandy.
First responders say medical care devolved into chaos as the hurricane?s floodwaters swamped EMS stations and paralyzed ambulances ? sometimes stranding medics on their roofs ? all because the FDNY failed to follow its own hurricane plan.
The two unions representing EMTs/paramedics and EMS officers last week voted ?no confidence? in Chief Nahmod and called for his immediate ouster, according to copies of the resolution found on the FDNY/EMS Rant Web site and the Facebook page of a Local 2507 executive.
STRANDED: Two intrepid EMTs can only wait for help atop an ambulance in the Rockaways, as others are forced to use a pickup truck to evacuate a patient as the FDNY?s response to Hurricane Sandy descended into chaos.
Nahmod ?jeopardized the safety of the public and his front line . . . by not ordering evacuation of personnel and equipment from flooded stations,? the resolution charges.
EMS workers say stations in flood zones weren?t ordered to relocate until they were already inundated, despite the FDNY?s own hurricane plan that requires crews to begin preparing 72 hours in advance.
In the Rockaways, medics stood on the roof of an ambulance for hours after their station flooded, and one EMT had to swim to safety after winds knocked him off the vehicle.
With ambulances under water and crews stretched thin, firefighters had to haul patients to hospitals in the beds of pickup trucks.
Rank-and-file critics say Nahmod also disregarded department policy to call in off-duty units during major emergencies.
?They should have recalled all members and put everyone on 12-hour shifts to get them in,? one FDNY source told The Post. ?They didn?t even do that until the last minute.?
Stations also reported a lack of food, water and power, although the FDNY?s plan requires supplies to be ready well before hurricane season begins.
Weeks after the storm, medics are still fuming.
?Many personnel feel as if they were left to fend for themselves . . . nobody was steering the ship,? one EMT posted on the Rant message board. ?People have questions. Hopefully, they will get some answers.?
Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano defended Nahmod and the FDNY?s response.
?I ordered all FDNY members ? EMTs, paramedics and firefighters ? to stay in service and in quarters during the storm for as long as possible,? Cassano said in a statement. ?Our members, along with the Police Department, were the last line of defense for the people in the communities we serve,? he said.
?I have the utmost confidence in [Nahmod] and his performance before, during and after Hurricane Sandy.?
Nahmod, a 26-year veteran of EMS with an advanced degree in homeland security, was appointed last year.
He replaced former EMS Chief John Peruggia, who was demoted following the December 2010 blizzard that resulted in a 1,300-call backlog in the 911 system and at least three deaths due to ambulance delays.
kbriquelet@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/drench_warfare_at_ems_H5j2bW3EacqRPoxKUXc0iN
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,158
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2007
- Messages
- 4,103
I beg to differ with you again, Chief. It is simply not true that no other country assisted in the days after Sandy:
1. Canada: The Ontario Power company sent 145 people and many vehicles to help get New Jersey power up and running. Power crews from Nova Scotia were in evidence on Long Island. The Canadian Red Cross sent millions of dollars worth of goods (people, too), and more.
http://m.naplesnews.com/news/2012/nov/27/letter-canada-lent-hand-after-sandy/
2. Mexico. Many volunteers came to assist the Red Cross with their work.
http://www.redcross.org/news/article/US-Navy-Helps-Red-Cross-in-NJ-After-Sandy
3. Russia. Sent two cargo aircraft and more than 50 tons of emergency relief supplies.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_11_12/Russia-s-EMERCOM-assisting-the-US/
4. Iran. Offered to send assistance. For some strange reason, their offer wasn't accepted.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iran/121101/iran-offers-us-aid-after-sandy
Get your facts straight before you make accusations.
1. Canada: The Ontario Power company sent 145 people and many vehicles to help get New Jersey power up and running. Power crews from Nova Scotia were in evidence on Long Island. The Canadian Red Cross sent millions of dollars worth of goods (people, too), and more.
http://m.naplesnews.com/news/2012/nov/27/letter-canada-lent-hand-after-sandy/
2. Mexico. Many volunteers came to assist the Red Cross with their work.
http://www.redcross.org/news/article/US-Navy-Helps-Red-Cross-in-NJ-After-Sandy
3. Russia. Sent two cargo aircraft and more than 50 tons of emergency relief supplies.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_11_12/Russia-s-EMERCOM-assisting-the-US/
4. Iran. Offered to send assistance. For some strange reason, their offer wasn't accepted.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iran/121101/iran-offers-us-aid-after-sandy
Get your facts straight before you make accusations.