Being a Refugee

Another update from the building management came in last night:

Attention Residents of 90 West Street.
Due to flooding in the sub-basement of your building and the negative effect on utilities, the New York City Housing and Preservation Department has issued an order to vacate 90 West St. Your building will be closed until the utilities can be restored.

As of 9 pm residents of 90 West Street will not be able to re-enter the building. Re-entry will continue tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 27th) with an escort for safety purposes. If you need to enter your apartment for an important purpose (i.e. a pet or medications), go to the front desk of the building tomorrow between 9AM and 5Pm, and you will be escorted up, and then back out again. Have patience, this could be a slow process.

It is not known exactly how long the building will be closed to occupancy. If you are re-entering your apartment to retrieve clothes or medicine, you may want to plan for the possibility that it may be 48 to 72 hours before the building is cleared for moving back in.

For additional information or services, The American Red Cross and the NYC Department of Homeless Services have opened a Reception Center located at 2 West St at the Ritz Carlton in the Heritage Room tonight. See below for directions.

For more information:

Tomorrow if you need updates on whether you can re-enter the building, you can check on the BuildingLink site's "Library" by going to www.XXXXXXX.com and using your regular login, or if you do not remember your regular login, you can log in with user name "XXXXXX" and password "XXXXXX".

We will also try to keep you updated via your email addresses in the BuildingLink database, and via BuildingLink's new voice-broadcast system, which will send you a voice message to your cell phones. YOU CAN ALSO CALL 311.

Temporary Relocation Information for Tenants of 90 West:

The following hotels have rooms available, just say that you are from 90 West St. Tenants are expected to make their own arrangements and pay for their hotel and will later be reimbursed by management. You are welcome to make accommodations at other hotels, and will be reimbursed by management as long as it is a reasonable rate.

IF YOU DECIDE TO STAY WITH A FRIEND instead of at a hotel, you will be reimbursed your 90 West rent for the days that you are displaced.

[long list of hotels and pet kennels]

About the time this email came in, Lynn and I had just arrived at the building to gather a few things. The streets around it were closed off and full of firemen, policemen, and city workers. In the lobby, stepping over hoses and cables that ran from the elevator shafts out the front door, we were greeted by a city worker who gave us a flashlight and pointed us to the stairwell.

We live on the 18th floor. It took a while.

When we got to our floor, we made our way through the dark hallway to our apartment. The apartment itself was actually pretty bright, with all the ambient light of NYC coming through the windows. We gathered some clothes, salvaged what we could from the freezer, and set off back down the stairs.

As we made our way down the stairs city workers and firemen greeted us every few floors calling down ahead of us on their radios that two more people were coming down. At the bottom were a group of other residents who were not being allowed up until we had reached the bottom.

We grabbed a taxi and went over to a friend's place to stay. He's been kind enough to take us in for the next couple of days.