New Yorkers Are Getting Hungry

As hundreds of thousands of Manhattan residents go into their third day without electricity, concerns are growing about the lack of food. One of the readers of Gothamist reports on the scene downtown:

Virtually every retailer, restaurant and grocery store south of 38th street is CLOSED. This is in an area covering 8 square miles. I only observed a handful of bodegas in Soho and the East Village, along with Ben’s Pizza on W3rd and MacDougal serving customers. Whole Foods Union Square had a sign reading “because there is no electricity, we cannot open.” There is no food, other than what you have in your refrigerator. To that point, there are close to 400,000 people living below 38th street without power. The mayor earlier said it could be 3 days without power; some Con Ed guys I spoke with in the East Village think it could be longer. Nobody knows.

Most refrigerated or frozen foods are approaching spoilage in the affected areas.  Residents of high-rises have no elevator service and seniors and the disabled are essentially trapped in their darkened apartments. Many taller buildings cannot pump water to the upper floors and toilets cannot flush.