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Cuomo Hopes Sandy Relief Package Will Help NYU Hospital

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- As the recovery from Superstorm Sandy continues, financial help is starting to trickle in, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo hopes it will help with reconstruction efforts at NYU Langone Medical Center on the East Side.

As WCBS 880's Jim Smith reported, Cuomo toured the facility to survey the damage it sustained after the storm on Oct. 29.

WCBS 880's Jim Smith reports

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Seven backup generators failed during the storm surge on the night of the storm, forcing the evacuation of 300 patients.

Outpatient procedures resumed within a few days, but a basement auditorium was still drying out from more than 11 feet of water nearly two months later.

"You have months and months and months of work that will be done here," Cuomo said.

The hospital has received $114 million initial reconstruction funds from the Federal Emergency Management Administration. The total cost for renovation is more than $1 billion.

Cuomo is pushing Congress for the Sandy Relief Package.

"We take a facility like NYU - - they need to know now what the budget is going to be so that they can determine what they're actually going to build," he said.

He told lawmakers, "Don't play politics with this issue."

President Barack Obama is asking for more than $60 billion to be earmarked for the Tri-State Area, but the final decision has to come from Congress.

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