About 5,500 of roughly 70,000 spots in New York City’s emergency-evacuation shelters had been filled as of Saturday evening, raising serious questions about whether New Yorkers are complying with a mandatory evacuation order affecting roughly 370,000 residents in low-lying areas.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his administration has observed a “marked increase” in the number of people evacuating since Saturday morning. Still, he voiced grave concern that a significant number of people will defy his unprecedented order to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irene’s arrival.

The mayor ordered residents to leave so-called “Zone A” areas, plus the entirety of the Rockaways in Queens, by 5 p.m. Saturday. City officials said they don’t have any data on how many people have complied, but the mayor and others conceded there is reason for concern. New York’s mass-transit system shut down on Saturday afternoon, adding another challenge for evacuees.

Separately, New York Gov. Cuomo visited the 69th Regiment Armory on Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue to announce he was deploying 1,000 National Guard troops, in addition to the 1,000 already deployed.

“The National Guard will play a vital role in this situation, Mr. Cuomo said.

The troops will be deployed throughout New York City and Long Island will work with personnel from the New York Police Department, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to secure bridges and tunnels and protect the World Trade Center site from flooding. The troops will also help with clean-up and direct traffic if there are widespread power outages.

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Bloomberg focused special attention on people living in public housing who have been ordered to evacuate. In hopes of convincing New York City Housing Authority residents to evacuate, the mayor said the city will be shutting off the building’s elevators and boilers.

“Your buildings are shutting down. Your elevators are shutting down. Your boilers are shutting down,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “And it will be much too dangerous to stay.”

In some public housing buildings, compliance with the evacuation order is 80% while in others it appears to be 50%, the mayor said. City officials believe a large number of residents of the Rockaways are heeding the evacuation order, possibly as many as 80%.

The city had planned for most evacuees to find lodging with family and friends, but the relatively miniscule number of people taking advantage of city shelters so far could signal that a large number of people have no intention of evacuating.

“We’re not going to break down doors,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the city’s Office of Emergency Management in downtown Brooklyn. “If people disobey the law, they’re doing it at their own risk, they’re being foolish.”

As the rains picked up early Saturday evening, a steady trickle of largely Asian and Latino residents from nearby Lower East Side apartment complexes filed into the Seward Park High School. In the crowd were many elderly and disabled residents. Volunteers served hot meals and provided toothbrushes, wipes and other sanitary products to evacuees.

“There are six kids in my family,” said Stephanie Guzman, a 23-year-old student whose building on Avenue D told her to evacuate Saturday morning.

Volunteers provided her family with supplies. “Food, water, diapers, blankets, cots, you name it, they’re handing it out,” Ms. Guzman said.

Cots had been set up in the school’s hallways, gym and basement, but not in classrooms with windows that could become dangerous in the storm. Evacuated pets filled a separate area, with the ASPCA providing puppy chow and chew toys.

Jamir Elephante, a 22-year-old dancer, lives in a glass-covered building on the Lower East Side. “We know it’s a new building but it just didn’t seem like it can withstand anything,” he said as he waited out the storm inside Seward Park High School.

“I’ve got two days worth of battery life,” he said, his iPod on full blast. “We’re fine.

In Battery Park City, a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan covered by the evacuation order, offered mixed reactions about the city’s mandatory evacuation order.

Some said they fear that if they leave, they won’t be able to get back for days given potential flooding in the area. After Sept. 11, 2001, it took three months for some buildings to allow tenants back in, some residents said. Others accused the mayor of overreacting following the city’s highly criticized response to the blizzard last December.

Damien Eckstein, 41 years old, carried bags from Gristede’s Foods filled with canned goods and candles. He plans to stay in his apartment overlooking the water, and he said three or four neighbors would also stay behind.

“The building put the memo [to leave] under our door, but we’ve had our share of false alarms in the past,” Mr. Eckstein said. “We’ve got candles and good books and we don’t want to be alarmist.”

Nick Long, 22, is staying put in his 3rd floor apartment in Battery Park City, despite instructions from the building’s management. “There’s not a chance we’re leaving. This is too fun,” he said.

“They can’t make us leave our own homes,” Mr. Long said, holding a cigar and a salami for the night ahead. “This is all mad hype and a way to make money. People are buying everything they can get their hands on.”

For the second day in a row, the mayor dismissed the notion that some might take advantage of evacuated neighborhoods. Asked about any reports of looting, the mayor replied, “This is New York. We don’t have that sort of thing.”

The city has 91 evacuation centers and emergency shelters throughout the city.

(Source: WSJ)