NYC Officials Cheer $3 Billion Federal Grant For Superstorm Sandy Aid
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Charles Schumer praised the Federal Emergency Management Agency for authorizing $3 billion in federal funding to repair and protect city housing developments damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
It is the largest single block grant in the agency's history.
The money will used at 33 developments damaged by the 2012 storm, WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported.
Many of those suffered basement flooding which damaged boilers and electrical and mechanical equipment, leaving some buildings without heat or power for weeks.
"The residents can tell you the horror they lived with, and we all saw it," Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a Tuesday news conference at the Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn, where Sandy knocked out power and water for nearly a month.
De Blasio called the grant "transcendent."
The developments "will now have the kinds of things that truly make them resilient -- elevated boilers, roof repairs to protect against water coming in through the roof, electrical upgrades, so many things that will change life fundamentally and for the better," the mayor said.
Stand-by generators will also be installed to keep the lights and elevators running during power outages.
Repair work at the housing projects will begin this summer and will take 18 to 36 months, de Blasio said. A development in Coney Island will be the first to undergo the overhaul.
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