Yonkers community steps up to help hundreds impacted by gas leak. How repairs are progressing
YONKERS, N.Y. — The Yonkers community is stepping up to help residents who've been left with no gas or hot water after a gas leak earlier this week.
According to the Yonkers Housing Authority, a series of gas leaks were found Wednesday at the Palisade Towers on Schroeder Street, forcing Con Edison to cut gas service to 415 units.
Volunteers help provide food, water for impacted residents
From volunteers' hands to residents' carts, cases of bottled water, bags of food and even appliances like hot plates and microwaves were at the ready Friday morning for families living in Palisade Towers.
"They're working real hard for us. That's all I can say. They're the best," said a resident named Candace, who has been living in the building for 15 years. She's in one of the 385 units that remain impacted by the gas leaks.
Supermarket Stew Leonard's took time out of its busy Labor Day weekend to prep a bag of food for each unit; some of its own employees live in the building.
"There was about 20 people that volunteered to say, 'I'll leave the bakery open an extra four hours so I can bake extra product,'" Stew Leonard's President Stew Leonard Jr. said.
The housing authority says more hot meals will be given out and that it was approved to receive a $5,000 donation in gift cards for residents to buy food.
Some Palisade Towers residents frustrated with miscommunication over gas leaks
Donated food fills Adelina Gonzalez's counter. She and her 2-year-old son, Marcus, have only been living in Palisade Towers for less than a year. They'll make use of their new hot plate because water right now, Gonzalez said, is "very, very cold."
"Like, you're better off using the bottled water that they gave you to wash your body," she said.
Residents have been getting letters slipped under their doors from the Yonkers Public Housing Authority with a list of phone numbers and resources, but Gonzalez says there's still miscommunication.
"One of them, it even says that we will have water, warm water as of September 3rd, but then some people are telling me 'oh, no, today, they're working on it today,' so which is it?" she said.
The Municipal Housing Authority of Yonkers says it's working on getting temporary boilers at five of the eight buildings Friday and the rest by the end of the day Saturday.