Crown Heights Preps for Storm

By COLlive reporter
Photos: Levi Percia/COLlive

Residents across the entire Tri-State Area and beyond are readying for the big-time effects from Hurricane Sandy.

All across the region, supermarkets, convenience stores and home fix-it stores have been selling out of some products.

Lines were long at Crown Heights grocery stores such as Empire Kosher and Kol Tuv, packed with residents stocking up on canned goods, bottled water, milk, bread and other essentials.

With the wind picking up in the New York area by Sunday morning, downed trees could be seen in a few places, and there are reports of internet outages in some parts of Crown Heights.

With the super storm expected to make landfall on Monday, officials in the city are taking no risks, shuttering schools and urging people to seek alternative accommodation away from lower Manhattan and threatened parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

“If you don’t evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference Sunday. “This is a serious and dangerous storm,” he reiterated amid talk from some residents that city officials were over-reacting.

Most Crown Heights schools will be closed Monday as well.