STATEN ISLAND — Hurricane Sandy tore through Staten Island and left devastation in is wake, prompting one elected official to call it a "mini-Katrina."
Rep. Michael Grimm, who represents parts of Staten Island and south Brooklyn, said Tuesday his district was in ruins after the storm.
"It is an absolute disaster," Grimm said in a statement. "[Monday] night, it was like a mini-Katrina as people who chose not to evacuate clung to their roofs."
He described a scene reminiscent to the killer storm that ripped through New Orleans in 2005, saying boats were floating down the street and fires were igniting after live power lines collapsed. He added that hospitals were flooded with people looking for help.
"Now, it's a disaster," he said. "Our hospitals are inundated with hungry and thirsty people, and emergency rooms cannot treat serious cases."
Ginger Sclafani, who lives on Maple Terrace, said the neighborhood at one point was submerged.
"Cars were under water," she said. "It was terrible. All the water was coming up."
On the South Shore, City Councilman Vincent Ignizio, who represents the area, said hundreds of people who decided not to evacuate homeless and looking for shelter, according to a report.
"This is a disaster beyond which I have ever seen on the South Shore, with the amount of water and how fast it came up," he told the Staten Island Advance.
"We have some people who quite frankly did not heed the warning to evacuate and are seeking rescue now," he added.
City Councilman James Oddo, who represents Mid Island, told the paper that island looks like a "war zone."
"It really is," he said, according to the Advance. "Within 45 seconds of being on the road in my Jeep, I realized that the Twitter and Facebook world had no idea of what was happening in the real world."
