‘No one slept’: Migrants at Brooklyn tent shelter recount scary night in coastal storm

It was a sleepless night for many of the hundreds of migrant families staying at the city’s massive tent facility at Floyd Bennett Field in Southeast Brooklyn, as howling winds and intense rains pounded the structures for hours — leading occupants to fear for their safety.

“No one slept from 2 a.m. onward, everyone was awake,” Anabel Lopez, 39, told Gothamist in Spanish Monday morning while dodging deep puddles and carrying a bag of groceries through the site’s parking lot.

Lopez said security guards at the tent where she’s been living — one of four at the former federal airfield — turned on the lights in the early morning hours and told residents to stay calm as the guards kept watch to make sure the tent was intact.

Gisela Viera, 32, who was venturing out of the shelter Monday morning with her 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son, said they were worried about potential flooding from nearby Jamaica Bay. She said she didn’t send her kids to school as usual, because they didn’t get any sleep.

“They woke up because people were screaming because they were scared,” Viera recounted.

In an interview on 1010 WINS Monday morning, Zach Iscol, the city’s emergency management commissioner, said the tent facility did not flood, noting the tents were dry and secure when he visited around 4 a.m.

Iscol said the structures are designed to “flex” in heavy winds, so they can be loud during intense storms. He said the situation overnight wasn’t “anywhere near” the threshold that would trigger officials to evacuate the site.

“Those tents are able to withstand much, much more significant weather than what we had earlier today,” Iscol said.

The National Weather Service reported gusts of up to 54 mph at nearby JFK Airport as of around 6:30 a.m. and up to 49 mph at nearby Breezy Point as of around 4:50 a.m.

Aries Dela Cruz, spokesperson for the city Office of Emergency Management, later told Gothamist the maximum wind load for the tents is up to 67.5 mph and ballast was added to the tents to fortify their resilience. The spokesperson added that subject matter experts in the OEM consider multiple factors while monitoring and evaluating the tents, including duration and direction of the wind.

While residents coming and going from the 2,000-bed site expressed relief that the structures held up during the coastal storm, which caused power outages throughout the region, they said they were concerned about what the winter will bring. Some 1,700 migrants are currently living at the facility, one of more than 200 sheltering migrants, according to City Hall.

Michael Pena, 36, said he’s especially worried about his 1-year-old son as colder and potentially snowy weather sets in.

“We can’t say, ‘Hey, move me, move me,’ because we’re migrants,” Pena said. “The fear we have is because we’re not used to this weather. And [last night] it seemed like the tent was going to fly away.”

In response to a question about how much snow accumulation the tents’ roofs could withstand, Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, said crews would sweep them in the event of a snowstorm. But she declined to provide Gothamist with a copy of the site’s evacuation plan, saying it was an “internal” document.

Darguin, a 28-year-old migrant who asked that only his first name be used because he fears retaliation from officials running the shelter, said strong winds began shaking his tent around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. He added that he could hear beams rattle above him and that his bed and belongings were drenched from rain seeping through the ceiling.

“It was like a strong earthquake inside,” he said.

Several other migrants also told Gothamist that rain fell from the ceiling and soaked the hanging lights in their tents.

Despite officials’ promises about the safety of the Floyd Bennett Field site, some migrants living there said their experience during the storm perturbed them enough that they’re anxious to find other accommodations for their families. Many said they’d already wanted to leave for reasons including the site’s location far from jobs and services and a lack of privacy in the tents.

Estefania, a 27-year-old migrant from Venezuela who asked that only her middle name be used because she feared retaliation due to her legal status, said the bathrooms are situated outside the living quarters, so parents worry about their children going out into the cold and getting sick.

“It’s not a place for kids,” she told Gothamist by phone.

Other residents said they felt isolated at the site, where the only public transit is the Q35 bus along Flatbush Avenue. They said families have to walk at least 20 minutes through a vast parking lot — often hauling young kids and groceries — to get to the nearest bus stop.

But the migrants who spoke with Gothamist said they had no other options for where to stay right now.

“Where would we go, to sleep in the streets?” Viera said. “I’m very grateful, because I have a roof for my kids and we have a place to sleep.”

Meanwhile, Iscol in his 1010 WINS appearance described the tent facility as a last resort for the city, given some 65,000 migrants are living at city shelters that have reached capacity and more migrants are arriving every week.

“I don’t think anybody in the administration thinks providing housing to families, especially with young children, out at Floyd Bennett Field is a good idea,” he said.

This story has been updated with new information from the city Office of Emergency Management.