Power Restored at NYC Housing Complex Where 46 Buildings Lost Electricity

Rebecca Caraballo, president of the Starrett City Tenant
 Association (Yasmeen Khan / WNYC)

All 15,000 residents of the massive Starrett City apartment complex experienced a power outage starting early Sunday morning, with the outage lasting well into the afternoon for some residents. The East New York complex, which has 46 buildings, has its own power plant separate from Con Edison.  

Officials said the power issue was resolved by about 10:00 a.m., but it took several more hours in some cases for buildings to be up and running with electricity. 

Beryl Thomas, a home health aide, sat on a bench outside one of the buildings around midday. She was waiting to reach her 78-year-old client who lived on the 17th floor, but the elevator was down.

Thomas said emergency workers climbed the stairs to check on her client and other vulnerable residents. The Fire Department also rescued six people trapped in stalled elevators, according to Brooksville Company, which owns the complex. 

WCBS-TV reported a 57-year-old old woman who was on a respirator when the power went out was found dead. Officials told the station that the machine didn't rely on building power because it ran on its own batteries, and she may have died before the power outage.

Multiple residents said they were accustomed to a couple of outages each summer, but they said power issues usually only involved one building at a time and would last for just several minutes — nothing on the scale of Sunday's outage.

Donnie Thomas said his power was restored soon after he woke up on Sunday, though his water was off, putting a kink in his Sunday plans.

"I had planned to go to church and really look spiffy and dressy and everything," said Thomas. "And I was disappointed. Because I get up and everything is so screwed up."

Rebecca Caraballo, president of the Starrett City Tenant Association, said residents had been checking in with her all morning as she sat outside at the complex's flea market.

"I tell people all the time: Keep buckets of water in your bathroom or in your kitchen," said Caraballo. She pressed that workers of the power plant and maintenance crews were quick to respond to issues, however.

Starrett City, which is now called Spring Creek Towers, was purchased by Brooksville Company in May. A spokesman for Brooksville said the company planned to make upgrades to the power plant starting in the fall. 

With reporting from the Associated Press