LEFT IN THE DARK: Still-powerless residents sit in the hallways of their Red Hook apartment complex (Gregory P. Mango)
They’re getting their drinking water from fire hydrants, walking past raw sewage in stairwells and donning three sets of clothing to stave off the freezing temps.
From Long Beach to Red Hook, from Coney Island to Midland Beach, the hurricane horror stories just keep coming.
“It’s horrible, disgusting,” said Dawn Kulaya, 38, a first-floor resident at the Knickerbocker Village complex on the Lower East Side, which was devastated by flooding. “No lights, water, heat, it’s unlivable. It’s unreal.”
Kulaya said she is exhausted from making trips to the 12th floor to bring supplies to her wheelchair-bound mom.
Since there is no elevator, Kulaya has to walk in dark stairwells past feces and sewage that has piled up in the corners.
Residents have been drawing their water from a fire hydrant, she added.
“I want to run away from here,” she said. “But I can’t. I have to stay.”
Each dark day brings a somber string of “no’s” to many city residents still in dire straits: No power. No heat. No water. No cellphone service. No timetable. No answers. No hope.
At the Red Hook Houses, residents of the Brooklyn’s largest public housing project went another day without power.
“I came back today hoping to stay,” said Brenda Warner, 50, whose family had to move out after the storm. “But the toilet won’t even flush. It’s just too cold for us to stay here.”
Additional reporting by Antonio Antenucci, Kieran Crowley and Ikimulisa Livingston