It was a grim day for the 40 defiant holdouts on Fire Island, where there would typically be about 6,000 residents and tourists at this time of year.
Local authorities collected the refuseniks’ vital statistics — Social Security numbers, next of kin and even names and phone numbers of dentists — in case their decision to stay proves tragic.
“They want to make sure they can identify people if something happens to them,” said Sharon Deleasa, a real-estate broker.
COMPLETE HURRICANE IRENE COVERAGE
NYC OEM: HURRICANE EVACUATION ZONE FINDER
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Since Police Commissioner Ray Kelly lives in Battery Park City, an evacuation zone, he chose to ride out the storm in his home away from home.
“I’m going to stay in Police Headquarters,” he told The Post. “I hope it’s very short, but it’s hard to predict with certainty.” His wife, however, had moved to “another location.”
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Cruising to Bermuda during a hurricane wasn’t exactly on Andy Marks’ bucket list.
The 47-year-old ditched plans to take a Royal Caribbean ship from Bayonne, NJ, yesterday with 16 relatives — and was stunned that the ship set sail.
“I just think it’s asinine,” he said. “Gov. Christie’s on TV saying to people, ‘Get out! Go!’ And we’re supposed to get on a ship that’s gonna drive into the teeth of the storm? Are you kidding me?”
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Time to waste the doughnuts.Staffers at the Dunkin’ Donuts at Nassau and Beekman streets in TriBeCa — a mandatory evacuation zone — were initially forced to stay open for business yesterday, until cooler heads prevailed.
“The manager said we have to stay open,” one employee told the Post. “We’re 24 hours.” Two hours later, “the company called and said you should close.”