NEW YORK, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- In a record year for hurricanes, New York City plans to get an early start on evacuations if they become necessary, officials said.
Jarod Bernstein, a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management, told the New York Post the plan anticipates the possibility of problems with evacuating the disabled and others with special-needs. Bernstein said officials would evacuate special-needs residents 72 hours before a weather-related emergency strikes.
"The Fire Department will visit every single hospital and nursing home to make sure they have their emergency plans implemented," he said, "and if we don't think a facility is moving forward fast enough or that their plan (is) comprehensive enough, we will jump in and make sure it is."
The Post had reported that the city's plan was outdated, listing Rudy Giuliani as mayor and calling for medical facilities to manage evacuations. The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of the 5-year-old plan from Democratic state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who had subpoenaed it from OEM.
Brodsky claimed that OEM did not begin to revise the plan until an Assembly committee that he chairs issued a report in September calling the plan outdated and flawed. Bernstein said OEM began updating the plan last spring.
