Calling all boats!
Under-equipped cops and firefighters on Sandy-battered Staten Island were in such desperate need for boats to save people from flooding homes that they took recreational canoes from an outdoor sporting goods store, borrowed rowboats from a city park and commandeered more from a Boy Scout camp, the Post has learned.
The police and fire departments on the hard-hit borough were inundated with 911 calls for help the night of Oct. 29 and did not have enough city-issued resources to perform all the rescues required, multiple sources said.
Several quick-thinking cops rushed over to Dick’s Sporting Goods at the Staten Island Mall in New Springville shortly after it closed around 9:30 p.m. – as the supserstorm was bearing down in full force – and were greeted by a sympathetic night manager as they banged on the door, sources added.
“It was done right after the storm surge came in,” said one police source. “It was done out of sheer necessity. I don’t think anybody expected what they saw that night.”
The manager let the cops take three 14-foot canoes off a display wall, as well as paddles and lifejackets – a total haul worth close to $2,000, according to one store employee.
“We at DICK'S Sporting Goods were proud that we could assist in providing supplies to the NYPD so that they could reach those affected by Superstorm Sandy,” said Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Hobart.
The NYPD has previously said that the borough’s Emergency Service Unit ventured out into the whipping winds and strong currents with only a large zodiac boat with a 40 hp motor, an inflatable zodiac boat without a motor, and a Yamaha jet ski.
Two metal jon boats weren’t used because cops feared being electrocuted by downed power lines.
However, a source said that the bigger concern among Island cops was that rotted plugs in the bottoms of some older NYPD skiffs were leaking, forcing cops to bail out the boats as they saved residents.
“Guys were tossing out buckets of water while helping families step into the boat. Just imagine what that must’ve looked like,” said another source.
Meanwhile, Island firefighters were equipped with seven boats the night Sandy hit, as well as seven water rescue units each staffed with six firefighters, said a Fire Department spokesman.
Still, firefighters found themselves in need of extra boats and reached out to the borough’s Parks Department headquarters for assistance.
Staffers grabbed all the rowboats from the concession stand in Clove Lakes Park in Sunnyside, loaded them onto department pickups and delivered them to firefighters braving the dangerous rising waters in Cedar Grove Beach, according to Parks officials.
“People were in need and our Parks staff just jumped into action, not even thinking about their own safety,” said Parks manager Bonnie Williams. All the boats were returned the next day.
Firefighters also commandeered two boats from the Boy Scout’s Pouch Camp facility, said senior ranger Gil Schweiger.
Schweiger added that he and several staffers also drove around that deadly night towing a trailer loaded with four boats and met firefighters at several disaster scenes to aid in rescues.
“We went to Dongan Hills and saved 127 people and their pets. All people living on Naughton Avenue, Seaver Avenue and Slater Boulevard, right near the marshes,” said Schweiger.
The revelations about the city’s lack of boat preparedness for first-responders comes two days after The Post reported how callers to the city’s 911 system were met with busy signals, recorded messages and ill-prepared operators during the storm, which ravaged swaths of the city and led to 43 deaths.
The failures have led Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Councilman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens), chairwoman of the fire and criminal justice committee, to call for an investigation.
Under-equipped authorities used canoes from stores & Boy Scout camp to rescue people on Staten Island during Sandy
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Under-equipped authorities used canoes from stores & Boy Scout camp to rescue people on Staten Island during Sandy
