New York city prepares to raze 200 storm-damaged homes
Houses marked as unsafe on Staten Island, in Queens and Brooklyn are in addition to similar number destroyed when Hurricane Sandy hit coast
New York city is moving to demolish hundreds of homes in the neighbourhoods hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy, after a grim assessment of the storm-ravaged coast revealed that many structures were so damaged they pose a danger to public safety and other buildings nearby.
About 200 homes will be bulldozed in the coming days, almost all of them one- and two-family houses on Staten Island, in Queens and Brooklyn. That is in addition to 200 houses that are already partially or completely burned down, washed away or otherwise damaged; those sites will also be cleared.
The Buildings Department is still inspecting nearly 500 other damaged structures, some of which could also be razed, according to the commissioner, Robert LiMandri.
LiMandri, in an interview late last week, said neither he nor his staff could recall the city ever undertaking this kind of broad reshaping of its neighbourhoods.
"We've never had this scale before," LiMandri said. "This is what New Yorkers have read about in many other places and have never seen. So it is definitely unprecedented. And by the same token, when you walk around in these communities, people are scared and worried, and we're trying to make every effort to be up front and share with them what they need to do."
No decisions have been made about rebuilding in the storm-battered areas - a complicated question that would involve not only homeowners, but also insurers and officials in the state, local and federal governments.
Some houses that are being torn down were built more than a half-century ago as summer chalets, then made winter-proof and extended. Current building codes would likely prohibit reconstruction of similar homes.
