Flooded Astoria Residents Await Reimbursement on Claims

Conchita Syrigos is waiting to rebuild. She says she lost everything she had on February 16, when a city water main burst in Astoria and flooded her home and dozens more along Ditmars Boulevard.“It was like Niagara Falls,” she told The New York Sun. “My garage door gave way, my washing machine was carried from one wall to the other. I call it my mini-tsunami. Everything is gutted out now. No walls, no floors, no nothing. It is really sad. You work all your life for things and it is gone in a matter of minutes.”Ms. Syrigos and her neighbors have been living in houses that are just a shadow of their former selves for three months as they await word from the city on how much they will be reimbursed. Astoria residents have until tomorrow to file a claim. So far, 45 claims have been filed, asking for $3.7 million in damages from the city, according to figures from the office of the city comptroller, William Thompson Jr.Ms. Syrigos , who works in the credit department of a local oil company, is asking for about $500,000 to replace furniture, a new boiler and water heater, and a 1996 Nissan Sentra, along with sheetrock and flooring to return her downstairs apartment to what it once was.“A bunch of the neighbors have the same problem I do, they don’t have the money to do this on their own,” she said. “We have to wait until the city gives us money to rebuild. So we wait.”The claims range from several thousand dollars to incalculable, because for some, in the words of Aurelia Calzolano, 97, who lives on Ditmars, “97 years of everything” was lost. City officials estimate that 1 million gallons of water ended up flooding about 50 houses.The problem for many of the Queens homeowners is that receipts were lost in the floods.“It took me two days to find my file cabinet under all the rubble, and my receipts were wet and covered in mud,” a teacher, Angela Giammatteo, said in a letter to the comptroller. “I hope this situation will be taken into consideration when reviewing my claim.”She is asking for about $55,000 in damages, to replace everything from televisions and cameras to washing machines and boilers.Just weeks after the deluge, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city Department of Environmental Protection was probably to blame for the break. He encouraged residents to file claims against the city, and he promised a speedy resolution.Mr. Thompson has sent staff members to the neighborhood to attend community meetings, speak with residents, distribute claim forms, and answer questions. They also have visited more than a dozen houses so far to assess the damages and investigate claims. The city will probably make settlement offers in the next few weeks, the comptroller’s spokesman, Jeff Simmons, told the Sun.“This was a mistake that cost millions of dollars in this neighborhood,” Ms. Syrigos said. “When Bloomberg came out said that it was the city’s fault, I was very relieved. Now all the neighbors are saying is, ‘How much will we get and when will the city give it to us?’ We’re all worried.”Claim forms can be found and downloaded at www.comptroller.nyc.gov.

Flooded Astoria Residents Await Reimbursement on Claims

Flooded Astoria Residents Await Reimbursement on Claims

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