By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL
Tens of thousands of people across Greater New York ignored evacuation orders as Hurricane Sandy barreled into the region on Monday, presenting an urgent dilemma as police and firefighters responded to the ferocious storm.
Associated PressThe Hudson swells over its banks in Hoboken.
Ahead of Sandy, New York Clears Out
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Getty ImagesA boarded-up Saks Fifth Avenue
Elected officials said they were frustrated by the residents' refusal to leave their homes in flood-prone areas and go to emergency shelters. Emergency teams worked to save stranded people from the Jersey Shore to eastern Long Island, but officials said those efforts largely ended when the storm landed Monday evening.
"It's just stupid," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said of those who refused to evacuate. "They are now in harm's way. I don't know if we can get them out or not given the conditions."
The storm's fury was evident even before it made landfall in New Jersey Monday evening, knocking out power to more than a million homes and businesses in the tri-state area, flooding sections of the city and shuttering the region's transit systems and schools through Tuesday. The state ordered most New York City bridges and tunnels closed, including the Verrazzano Bridge, the Holland Tunnel and the Tappan Zee Bridge.
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Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street JournalA tree is uprooted on Carlton Avenue in Brooklyn on Monday.
Officials predicted millions more would ultimately lose power by the time the storm passed on Tuesday. Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned that the worst flooding would occur late Monday and early Tuesday. Many businesses that closed Monday were unsure of their plans for Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of people, including 375,000 in New York City, were ordered to leave low-lying areas on Sunday, but officials said there was widespread defiance.
At least 3,651 people checked into New York City's emergency shelters by 6 p.m. on Monday, fewer than the 10,000 who did the same during Tropical Storm Irene last year. The number was about 5% of the capacity of 70,000 in 76 city shelters.
Officials knocked on doors at city public housing complexes under evacuation order and made phone calls alerting residents. Elevators, heat and hot water were shut off in public housing. But Mr. Bloomberg estimated half of the 45,000 public housing residents didn't follow the evacuation order.
In neighborhoods under the evacuation order, police officers drove around, using loudspeakers to urge people to comply.
"We've tried everything we can to get 'em to come and some people say, 'Oh, I'll just stay at home,'" said Mr. Bloomberg, referring to city shelters.
By Monday evening, the mayor said "the time for relocation or evacuation is over" and told residents to stay put, wherever they were.
The decision to evacuate their homes was an agonizing one for families across the region. Some said they were worried by the storm but had concerns about public shelters. Others said they had left their homes for Tropical Storm Irene, which didn't cause much damage, and didn't want to overreact this time.
David Fornah, a 36-year-old taxi driver, said he wouldn't leave his home in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.
"I don't want to be in a shelter. That's the worst place to be," said Mr. Fornah, who emigrated from Sierra Leone nine years ago.
In the Greenpoint, Brooklyn, people were roaming the streets along the waterfront.
"This is hilarious," said New York Police Officer Ralph Tomeo of the residents who lived in an evacuation zone. "They should have been out of here."
For others, leaving their home for a shelter was a wrenching but necessary choice. Melinda Booker, 59, started to cry as she described abandoning her apartment in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn with her 22-year-old son. She went to a shelter in Downtown Brooklyn but had yet to hear from her daughter and two grandchildren.
"They should have listened to me," she said about evacuating. "I didn't think, I just came. I feel that it was safer."
The danger of ignoring evacuation orders was clear on Long Island. A rescue team ferried 14 people off Fire Island before huge waves were expected crash there Monday night. Suffolk County and Islip Town officials said they were worried that about 50 people remaining on the barrier island would have to contend with the storm on their own.
"Tonight is going to be a very dangerous night," said John Cochrane, an Islip Town councilman.
New Jersey officials also said there were rescues being made all along the barrier islands of the Atlantic shore. The National Guard was sent into Atlantic City save those who decided not to evacuate.
In Brigantine, N.J., a barrier island situated across from Atlantic City, for example, 50% of the residents there refused to evacuate, state officials said. In Seaside Heights, 25% didn't evacuate.
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Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThe Hudson River comes over the sea wall along the West Side Promenade in the Battery Park area in New York on October 29, 2012 as New Yorkers prepare for Hurricane Sandy which is supposed to hit the city later tonight. AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARYTIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images Published Credit: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Joanne Bernardini, a resident of Ocean City, N.J., on a barrier island, decided to wait out the storm at home with her family.
"I feel very confident that we are fine," said Ms. Bernardini, a real-estate agent with a house in Ocean City, N.J., since 1962. "This isn't the first hurricane for us. We don't have the terrifying fear that others have."
New Jersey officials said more rescues might not be possible Tuesday. State police helicopters were grounded because of high winds and might not be available until after the winds subside, officials said.
In Connecticut, many residents ignored dire warnings from Gov. Dannel Malloy, who spoke of unprecedented damage from storm surges that could reach 11 feet. In Bridgeport, 700 people were in shelters by 6 p.m. Monday, about half the city's capacity.
Rafael and Rosario Ruiz were among those who chose to leave, setting up cots in a Bridgeport shelter.
"We decided before it's too late to go, who knows," Mr. Ruiz said. "It's only one night I hope. Tomorrow we go home."
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