Press Release

The New York City Housing Authority has successfully restored power, heat and water to all buildings affected by Hurricane Sandy. NYCHA has also restored elevator service to all buildings that were impacted by the storm, or 679 of 699 impacted elevators. The remaining elevators will be in service over the next few days. NYCHA installed over 100 generators and over 24 temporary boilers brought in from across the country to provide essential services to public housing residents. The Housing Authority utilized thousands of employees and hundreds of contractors, and partnered with utility companies and agencies from the City, state and federal government to restore the services. While all electricity, heat, and hot water have been restored, some residents in the impacted buildings will occasionally experience service disruptions as generators are disconnected and buildings are re-connected to utility power, and as a result of ongoing maintenance of the approximately 24 temporary boilers providing heat and hot water to impacted buildings. NYCHA will have extra resources in place for as long as necessary to ensure that any disruptions are kept to a minimum. If residents experience service disruptions, they should call the NYCHA Customer Contact Center at 718-707-7771.

“The restoration of power, heat and hot water is a huge achievement for NYCHA staff who have been working around the clock to bring these services back to our residents,” said NYCHA Chairman John B. Rhea. “We recognize that this has been an extremely difficult period of time for residents, as the unprecedented damage from Hurricane Sandy destroyed entire electrical and heating systems throughout NYCHA. Our staff, assisted by hundreds of contract workers, labored tirelessly to bring essential services back to every public housing resident impacted by the storm as quickly as possible. I want to express my appreciation for the incredible patience and support shown by NYCHA residents during this period.”

After Hurricane Sandy hit, there were 402 buildings without electricity and 386 buildings without heat and hot water affecting approximately 80,000 residents, and all have been restored to service. These buildings systems experienced extensive corrosive damage to their boilers and electrical distribution equipment as a result of flooding from the storm.