Cuomo tours damage in Long Beach

Long Beach Medical Center is expected to reopen this evening, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said, after many of the hospital’s 230 patients were evacuated to Nassau University Medical Center on Saturday when LBMC officials heeded Mangano’s mandatory evacuation notice for Long Beach.

“Long Beach hospital was on its way to be reopened,” Mangano said at a press conference at the Maple Boulevard Fire House on Sunday, where he joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo and City Manager Charles Theofan to update residents about Hurricane Irene’s impact on Long Beach, Long Island and the rest of New York state.

“They were looking to reopen [today] ... we expected [the hospital] to reopen,” Mangano said.

Cuomo said that more than one million New Yorkers are currently without power, and may be so for “days.”

At the press conference, Cuomo noted the damage to the beach and throughout the city caused by Sunday's flooding, strong winds and massive storm surges. He announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved an additional 10 counties to receive federal assistance as a result of Hurricane Irene. The initial declaration included the five boroughs as well as Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island.

“Today, we asked the federal government for additional disaster declarations for a number of counties,” Cuomo said. “We have tremendous flooding issues and emergencies that are still going on.”

"Although the storm is now moving out of New York, we must turn our focus on cleaning up and providing assistance where it is needed," Cuomo said in a statement issued after the press conference.

Cuomo noted the additional National Guard troops that were deployed to Nassau County and Long Beach to assist with the cleanup efforts, and lauded local officials for their role in the effort.

“There is more cleanup to do and they will be here for days,” Cuomo said. “The partnerships between the state and county government and Long Beach, that’s worked.”

As the Long Island Power Authority works to restore power to more than 400,000 homes -- and with more than 80,000 residents affected by the outages on the barrier island as of 6:30 p.m. -- Cuomo acknowledged that it could be days before the power is restored.

“These power outages will remain for days, but the worst is behind us,” Cuomo said. “The worst of the storm has passed, and now we have to do a full assessment of what the damage was. It could have been worse, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t significant damage.”

Cuomo said he would update residents about whether local airports would reopen later this evening.