Heavy toll on people

For an estimated 100,000 residents in western Queens, the 10-day blackout left them without both necessities and amenities during some of the hottest days of the year and several bouts of torrential weather.
Myrna La Boy said on Friday, July 21 she lost about $200 worth of groceries – mostly ice cream, meat, and yogurts that she had bought to feed her 6-year-old granddaughter Samantha Her-nandez.
&#8220Con Edison gave me a pretty terrible birthday president,” the 49-year-old grandmother said, explaining how she spent her birthday on Tuesday, July 18 in the dark during the hottest day of the year. &#8220It was horrible. We had no information at all.”
Con Ed has said that they will reimburse Queens customers who lost power last week with $150 for groceries that had to be thrown out and up to $350 for customers who have receipts or pictures of the spoiled food. However, many local residents have said that they lost more money than the maximum amount.
With local food stores closed, residents had to venture out of the area for something to eat or take handouts from the Red Cross and other emergency services.
&#8220Whatever you see here, that’s what we are eating,” said Nieve Obsio, pointing to a handcart stuffed with Clementine oranges and ham and cheese sandwiches.
When asked on Friday how she and her two-year-old son Dagrovis were faring in the blackout, Obsio only said, &#8220not so good.”
Thirteen-year-old Dylan Schiff also shoved sandwiches and oranges into a backpack that he was going to bring home to his mother and two sisters, 9 and 7. Schiff said that at night he was able to sleep because temperatures dropped, but during the days the sweltering heat and humidity made him and his family very uncomfortable.
Farida Abdellah was most worried about getting her hands on a bag of ice on Friday, July 21 as she waited in line with about 100 other people for supplies from Con Ed and Red Cross. As a thunderstorm pummeled the corner of Steinway Street and Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Abdellah stayed in her place in line with her sister, Monica, and son, Michael 3, for ice, dry ice, and food.
Abdellah, who is now in a wheelchair because she had knee surgery in June, needed the ice to stop swelling in her leg and reduce pain from the injury incurred by a fall in December 2005.
Gas stations were closed without electricity to run the pumps, so Antonio Ingenito could not buy gas for his car that was running on empty; R & S Strauss was closed so Maria Riggs of Sunnyside Gardens could not buy a car battery; Sunnyside-Gardens resident Catherine Volpe’s cell phone battery was on low until her power returned; doctor’s offices were closed.
Local politicians suffered, too. power was off in the offices of Assemblyman Michael Gianaris and Councilmembers Peter Vallone, Jr. and Eric Gioia.
On Wednesday, July 19, trash from the streets left putrid aromas in the air as residents filled their trash cans with spoiled meat and milk and left them on the sidewalk to be collected, said Astoria resident Tony Panella.
In addition, the blackout also brought on several unanticipated problems for seniors in the area – medicine could not be refrigerated.
For their cooler of medications Salvatore (83) and Millie (81) Perri took several bags of ice to their home on 47th Street to keep Millie’s eye drops and Salvatore’s insulin chilled.
Inside the couple’s home where they have lived since 1969, the temperature was still about 80 degrees on Friday, July 21 – even after three rounds of thunderstorms – and the previous Tuesday, July 18, the living room had been much hotter.
&#8220What can we do? The fans do not work. We threw out everything this morning,” Millie said on Friday. &#8220It was close to $200.”
The Perris said they could go to their son’s home in Maspeth but they would rather &#8220tough it out” in their Astoria home, so that they could check on elderly neighbors – including a 92-year-old woman who lives up the street and an 87-year-old neighbor.
&#8220They are really having a hard time,” Salvatore said.
Local lawmakers had asked that Queens residents affected by the blackout check up on seniors.
&#8220People’s lives are at risk,” said Congressman Joseph Crowley during a press conference last week.
To give a hand to her elderly neighbor, Volpe, a tiny woman who would only identify herself as a senior citizen, lugged two gallons of bottled water up 12 flights of stairs in Berkeley Towers in Sunnyside Gardens. The 663-unit building has many elderly residents, who were without power for two days last week.
&#8220You would never know anything was going on in Manhattan,” Volpe said on Friday. Her building’s power was restored on low voltage on Wednesday night.
Residents with small children and pregnant women were also faced with additional obstacles during last week’s blackout.
Thais Leit, who brought her 11-month-old daughter Allyse, to the Red Cross station to get food and ice, said that she was having a very hard time trying to keep the baby cool and finding food that her daughter would eat.
&#8220It just makes things a million times worse,” she said.