Even with what seems like a small-scale disaster, reacting quickly and properly makes an enormous difference.

“About 20 years ago, during a blizzard, a water main broke at 72nd Street and Madison Avenue and flooded that whole area in freezing, freezing cold water,” says Gerard J. Picaso, president of his namesake firm. “This isn’t like a leak – this is like a geyser of water coming out of the middle of the street and freezing all over.”

In one 36-unit co-op his company managed, “the boiler room and the elevator motor were in the subbasement, which [was] filling up with water. The superintendent recognized immediately that there was a problem and he called me at home, and [we] called three different plumbing companies and got them all to come to the building with pumping systems. That allowed us to pump the water out almost as fast as it was coming in. Consequently, we were able to dry out the elevators, we were able to save the electric power – we had already shut it off in the building, because the waterline came within an inch of the electrical panels – and we managed to save one of the boilers, so heat was restored within 48 hours.”

Long before that, the super and elevator man had knocked on each door, explained that the building would probably be losing electricity soon, and suggested that residents evacuate to a friend or relative's place.

“Some opted to leave, some stayed,” Picaso recalls. “The elevator went out of service several hours later, but we had already gotten the people out of the building who needed to get out but couldn’t walk up and down the stairs. People came back probably within 72 hours – while the other buildings on this street were trying to call the plumbers that we had already.”

– Frank Lovece