NYCHA Elevators to Shut Down, But When?

As we mentioned earlier, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city will be shutting down NYCHA elevators in preparation for Hurricane Irene. Our Harry Siegel points out that a time frame was not issued for this move that will potentially affect hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. An OEM spokesperson says that this will only be implemented in buildings located in Evacuation Zone A and any shutdowns will unlikely be enforced until after 5pm. A press conference will be held between 2pm and 4pm today that will hopefully clarify when exactly they plan on shutting down the elevators. Some NYCHA buildings are over 30 stories tall, so this information will be extremely important to residents attempting to evacuate. We can’t find any specific mention of the elevator shutdown anywhere on the city’s websites or in any hurricane preparedness PDAs or other downloads. We’ll update as soon as a time frame is issued. This is a good time to review the city’s evacuation zone map. [@nickgreene]