NY state: Thousands need housing

2012-11-04 17:42

A National Guard truck drives through high water on Newark Street in Hoboken, New Jersey in the wake of superstorm Sandy. (Craig Ruttle, AP)

New York - Tens of thousands of New York people need housing after superstorm Sandy, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated that 30 000 40 000 people in the city alone would need housing after Monday's storm which left more than 100 dead in 15 US states and Canada and inflicted tens of billions of dollars of damage.

"It is starting to get cold, people are in homes that are uninhabitable," Cuomo told a press conference. "We are going to have tens of thousands of people who need housing solutions right away."

Cuomo says that means that residents who have been reluctant to leave their homes will have to, and that they'll need housing.

About 730 000 people in New York state still do not have electricity, nearly one week after Sandy hit, including more than 130 000 in New York City, the governor said.

With drivers waiting several hours in queues at petrol stations to get fuel, Cuomo and Bloomberg appealed for patience and insisted that deliveries are improving.

There are also at least one million people in New Jersey state without electricity. Much of the state is under fuel rationing.

- AP