Prolonged power loss threatens Queens residents who use medical devices
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Justin Quirke, 13, (foreground) with his young brother Mateo (left), father Thomas (center) and mother Alicia. Photo courtesy of the Quirke family
By David Brand
As Tropical Storm Isaias blew toward Queens, Alicia Quirke and her husband spent Aug. 3 charging and checking medical equipment inside their Middle Village home.
The powerful winds approaching the city would almost certainly knock out their electricity and threaten the health of their son Justin, who uses machinery to help him breathe.
“Everything we use for him needs power,” Quirke said. “A nebulizer, a Chest Vest machine, a machine called a Vital Cough, a suction machine, his ventilator.”
For some New Yorkers, the loss of electricity is a nuisance that means eating take-out by candlelight with no Bravo on in the background. For others, it’s an obstacle that complicates work-from-home plans during the COVID-19 pandemic or prevents newly unemployed New Yorkers from hunting for a new job.
But for Justin and others who rely on electric-powered medical equipment to survive, a power outage is a potentially life-threatening situation.
“It’s pretty stressful on that level,” Quirke said.
The Quirkes ended up losing electricity Tuesday afternoon. They got it back for a few hours Thursday, then lost it again until partial power returned Friday night.
During the outage, neighbors pulled together to provide support, she said. One man retrieved gasoline to fuel another neighbor’s generator. That neighbor, a woman named Marie, let the Quirkes recharge Justin’s medical equipment in her home, while she charged her own nebulizer in her car.
The support and planning enabled Justin, 13, to fare well during the outage, Quirke said. Nevertheless, he missed nearly a week of group fitness sessions, occupational therapy appointments and classes at his yearlong school, which all require a charged-up tablet during the COVID shutdown.
The Quirkes were one of at least 57,000 households who lost power in Queens as a result of the Aug. 4 storm. For about 47,000 households, the outage lasted more than 24 hours. About 5,800 homes still lacked electricity Monday morning, six days after the storm.
Intense wind and rain toppled trees and above-ground power lines in neighborhoods across Queens, particularly in Middle Village, Ozone Park, Queens Village, Cambria Heights and Flushing, according to Con Edison.
The threat to people with medical conditions — already vulnerable during the pandemic — wasn’t lost on Middle Village Councilmember Robert Holden, who called on the city and state to request support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army National Guard.
“Seniors who rely on medical equipment are suffering, and an ambulance might not even be able to reach them due to fallen trees still lying in the road,” Holden said.
Neither Gov. Andrew Cuomo or Mayor Bill de Blasio took him up on that proposal, but Con Edison has continued laboring around-the-clock to restore service.
Their preparations began before the storm hit. As Isaias approached Queens, the utility contacted the Quirkes and thousands of other families to encourage them to prepare for power loss. Con Edison keeps a database of households where residents use electric medical equipment and notifies them when an outage is likely.
Con Edison also contacts the households each day and informs the NYPD when residents do not respond, a spokesperson said. Officers knock on doors to check in on residents with special needs.
In the days since the storm, the company has distributed dry ice to help people store their food and medication during the outage. Officials passed out dry ice at the bandshell in Forest Park, near the Quirke’s Middle Village home, over the weekend. On Monday, the company moved the distribution site to Ozone Park, where hundreds of customers remain without power.
Families who lost power for at least 48 hours are also eligible for a spoiled food reimbursement. The claim form is available on the Con Edison website and can be emailed, faxed or mailed to the utility company.
The food reimbursements are vital for families already facing financial hardship amid the economic fallout of COVID-19.
“We worried about losing power because we wanted to save every bit of food and money,” Quirke said. Her husband Thomas was furloughed from his job as a bartender once COVID shut down restaurants, leaving the family strapped for cash, she added.
After several stressful days, the power returned in the Quirkes home late Friday. Then the lights flickered off.
“It stirred up all those feelings,” Quirke said. “We were like, ‘Oh, here we go again.’
But the power returned, sparing the family additional anxious hours.
