Mayor Booker: Newark Remains In State Of Emergency As Nor'easter Approaches
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Cory Booker said Monday his community remained in a state of emergency, as a Nor'easter began moving toward the area.
The storm was expected to bring an inch of rain and winds gusting up to 60 mph on Wednesday. It was set to arrive as much of Newark was without power due Superstorm Sandy.
"The biggest problem most certainly is power. We still have about 50,000 to 60,000 residents without power, many of them vulnerable populations, you know, senior citizen buildings; people who have medical needs," Booker said. "So that's the urgency. We're trying to do our best to get generators located in those places to power folks."
Booker said he did not believe the utility companies were to blame for the continued outages.
"I know it's a very easy thing to do to beat up on folks like PSE&G, but I have a good understanding of the gravity of their work and jobs here in the State of New Jersey," Booker said. "They've brought in a lot of teams from out of state, and so we have significant number of teams on the ground, and we're pushing and they're pushing themselves quite hard."
Carbon monoxide was also a concern, Booker said.
"Obviously, there's dangers in the recovery," he said. "We had two people die in our city due to carbon monoxide poisoning because they're using their stoves or generators to heat, and so we're very concerned about carbon monoxide."
Booker warned that when the Nor'easter arrives, more trees could come down, and more power outages are possible.
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