Conn. Lawmaker Seeks To Make Sure Federally Funded Senior Housing Has Generators

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - In Connecticut, one lawmaker says seniors should not have been left in the dark during superstorm Sandy and she's doing something about it.

WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau On The Story

During the height of the storm, St. Sen. Edith Prague, a big advocate for the elderly in the Nutmeg State, received a phone call.

Prague says it was a constituent calling from senior housing complex, one funded by the U.S. Department of Housing an Urban Development.

"She said, 'I don't know what to do. We have no power. There are two people here on oxygen.' She said 'The hallways are dark. People are walking around with lit candles,'" Prague said.

One resident fell in the dark and broke her hip.

Prague says she found it hard to believe that government-funded housing would not provide a power generator. She was told there was no federal requirement.

"How stupid is this? They spend millions and millions of dollars putting up a building and you don't put in a generator to protect these elderly people when they run out of power?" she said to WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau.

She eventually rounded up a generator for the complex, and now is working with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to make sure that HUD does provide generators for the senior housing it funds.