Battered New Yorkers, still reeling from Hurricane Sandy, are gearing up for Round 2 — a powerful nor’easter that had Mayor Bloomberg yesterday urging shoreline residents to evacuate to shelters on higher ground.
The new storm, which was expected to bring rain, sleet, snow gusts of 45 mph and wind chills in the 20s, had officials worried about another storm surge and a fresh batch of blackouts.
Bloomberg said cops will drive through areas hard hit by Sandy using loudspeakers to warn people about the approaching storm.
The mayor last night ordered that four health-care facilities in the devastated Rockaways need to be evacuated because they are being powered by generators, which could get knocked out.
Con Ed, which was still working yesterday to restore electricity to about 79,000 customers, said high winds, cold rain and snow could combine to topple more trees onto overhead power lines.
The storm is expected to roll in this morning and intensify through the afternoon. It comes just nine days after Sandy walloped the Big Apple, killing 40 New Yorkers and destroying hundreds of homes.
Worried Coney Island resident Benny Wright, who defied the Sandy evacuation order, said he wasn’t staying this time. “I’m getting out of here, and I wish I’d left the first time,” said Wright, 54.
Mother Nature’s latest fury comes as:
* Gov. Cuomo ordered that all out-of-state electrical crews remain in New York until after the nor’easter passes. Cuomo also vowed a thorough review of how electric utilities prepared for and responded to Sandy.
“I don’t think their performance was adequate,” he said. “Period.”
* FEMA said it was closing 10 mobile Disaster Recovery Centers around the region because of the looming storm. Three other centers, in Brooklyn and Long Island, will remain open.
* The MTA said it will impose restrictions on its bridges if wind speeds exceed 30 mph while roadways are wet.
* The Holland Tunnel is set to reopen to all commuter traffic today at 5 a.m. It was reopened Friday for buses.
* Thirteen city schools still don’t have electricity and students there will be reassigned to other buildings. Thirty-five schools that will reopen today, despite lacking heat.
* An 82-year-old Queens man trying to cross Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown was struck and killed yesterday afternoon by an Ohio Army National Guard truck that was part of a convoy headed to pick up supplies for victims of Sandy.
* Some hungry Staten Islanders got a much-needed treat yesterday with a gourmet meal donated by the New York Public Library after it canceled a black-tie gala. The menu included beef bourguignon with fall vegetables, purée of rutabaga and potato and Caesar salad.
“It’s amazing what they’re doing here,” said Jeff Mulford, 30, whose New Dorp Beach bungalow was wrecked by flood waters. “It’s a godsend. It looks excellent.”
* At St. Francis de Sales Church in the Rockaways, volunteer medic Alison Thompson was setting up a triage area in the makeshift shelter established there.
“This is the most complicated disaster zone in terms of logistics, because people are having a tough time getting here,” said Thompson, who’s done relief work in Sri Lanka, Haiti and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. “This debris you see out here, it’s not just going to stay there during the storm, it’s going to fly and cause more damage.”
* Also in the Rockaways, gas from a generator was siphoned and port-a-potties stolen from a polling site, officials said.
* The city today is distributing 1,500 space heaters to elderly residents on that peninsula.
* The parking lot at Riis Park has become a giant dump for debris and garbage that the Sanitation Department collected in the Rockaways since the weekend. More truckloads of trash than normal are being collected each day across the entire city.
Similar sites have been set up on Staten Island, at Midland and Cedar Grove beaches.
* The 9/11 Memorial reopened. “This was a strong storm, very terrible, but everything is still standing,” said tourist Anita Pontaletta, 62, of Vancouver, Canada.
“To me, it means New York is strong and can go on from anything.”
* City workers in two historic downtown Manhattan buildings — the Tweed Courthouse and the Emigrant Bank Building — were told not to use electric heaters at their desks, even though the heating systems there are broken. An internal memo says “to come to work dressed warmly.”
* Staten Island artist Scott Lobaido, who painted American flags on the roofs of homes in all 50 states as part of his “Flags Across America” project, gussied up a waterlogged house in New Dorp Beach with the Stars and Stripes yesterday.
Lobaido’s artwork now covers the front of Maggie King’s beachfront home.
* A Staten Island couple was yold their sailboat, which had been docked in Atlantic Highlands, NJ, before Sandy struck, was found off Midland Beach, SI, where it had been blown by the storm after looters pillaged the cabin.
“It’s a shame. My husband worked so hard for this boat . . . It’s his baby,” said Maria Lewandowski, who co-owns it with her husband, Andre.
* Continuing blackouts are disrupting water-cooler talks between the power-haves and power have-nots.
At Vente-Privee on Hudson Street, Jason Lerman has been pleading with his co-workers not to spoil his favorite TV shows for him.
“I want everyone to be quiet about it,” said Lerman, 23, whose Syosset, LI, home was still without electricity.
Additional reporting by Erin Calabrese, Sally Goldenberg and Dareh Gregorian