Deaths likely due to cold rise to 22, including those found at private residences

The city’s Medical Examiner is investigating 22 deaths attributed to the recent cold snap, a number which includes 15 people found dead outdoors and another seven found at private residences who are also confirmed to have died of hypothermia.

Those seven people’s deaths did not appear to have been tallied before Tuesday and a spokesperson for City Hall couldn’t say right away if those deaths occurred indoors or outdoors.

While the city had released an updated tally on Monday of 18 New Yorkers found outdoors in suspected cold deaths — which included three people now believed to have died from drug overdoses and not the cold — the seven additional people who died at private residences were also hypothermia deaths, according Matthew Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for City Hall.

The updated tally came after more than four hours of testimony on Tuesday where members of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration defended their handling of a dramatic cold snap.

During the hearing, the city’s Chief Medical Examiner Jason Graham alluded to additional cold-related deaths that had occurred in private residences, but members of the council did not press him for details.

Julie Bolcer, a spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s office later confirmed the seven additional cold deaths but could not provide further details. Rauschenbach was not able to say whether people had been found indoors or outdoors at their homes.

During the course of the hours-long hearing on the recent cold snap, Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park, New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol and Chief Medical Examiner Jason Graham testified along with high-ranking officials from NYC Health and Hospitals and the police and fire departments — a stark change from the prior administration, when senior officials skipped council hearings in Adams’ final days in office.

“The temperature dropped really sharply, really fast,” said Wasow Park; her agency oversees homeless shelters and outreach. She added that the temperature drop also came on a Friday night, when the city usually sees a dip in the shelter population compared to weekdays.

“We had this very dangerous situation happening on a weekend, I think it caught people by surprise.”

Wasow Park suggested that once the cold subsides, the agency should examine how the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) can better communicate with people when a sharp and rapid drop in temperatures is approaching. During the cold spell, some unhoused New Yorkers told THE CITY that the severe weather snuck up on them.

After inching above freezing for several days, temperatures dropped again on Saturday, and the city logged another death, bringing the total to 18. While the snap fell short of breaking historical records, it was the most consecutive days of cold weather since 2018.

Wasow Park said the city placed 1,400 people in shelters, safe havens, and warming centers, not including about 150 people per night who used emergency warming buses.

During the frigid stretch, outreach workers visited people known to be living on the streets every two hours to offer them a warm place to go, checking that they were lucid, dry and wearing sufficient layers. Workers removed people against their will only when they were determined to be a danger to themselves.

Over the course of the cold snap, the Department of Homeless Services involuntarily removed 33 people, while the NYPD removed another 52 people to hospitals against their will.

Fifteen of the outdoor deaths are thought to have been caused by hypothermia. Of those, eight had been confirmed as cold-related deaths, and in five of those cases, drugs or alcohol were a contributing factor, according to the city Medical Examiner’s office. The remaining seven were still being investigated.

Another three deaths that took place outside initially were thought to be cold related were found to have possible drug involvement, Chief Medical Examiner Jason Graham testified on Tuesday.

The Associated Press reported that one man was found dead in a city park with hospital discharge papers in his pocket. Health and Hospitals Senior Vice President Ted Long declined to comment on the case.

During an average year between 10 and 20 people die on the streets of New York City from hypothermia, Wasow Park testified. According to the most recent annual city report, which covers deaths in fiscal year 2023, 11 homeless people died from exposure to excessive cold.

While Wasow Park said the majority of people who died had some contact with DHS over the course of their lives, only a few had contact with the agency in recent months. She was not able to say how many.

John M. Esposito, the New York City Fire Department’s chief of department, said the FDNY received 5,700 calls to 911 for people in the cold and took 680 people to hospitals during the cold snap. At one point, they were so slammed that they “did not have ambulances available for 300 people,” he said.

All 311 calls for homeless outreach were rerouted to 911 during “Enhanced Code Blue” protocols, which kick in during below-freezing weather with strong winds, snowfall or other precipitation and deep wind chills.

Wasow Park’s testimony came a day after Gothamist reported on her planned resignation. Wasow Park rebuffed reporting in the New York Timesthat Mamdani’s administration had lost confidence in her handling of the agency.

“This is not related to the last two weeks,” Wasow Park said. “In 22 years there have been plenty of tough moments, and two weeks is not going to bring me to the door.”