New York City evacuated on Tuesday about 500 families with children, nearly 2,000 people in total, from a massive tent shelter set up on the Floyd Bennett Field, an airplane runway, ahead of heavy rains and wind expected to hit the area. More than a dozen buses lined up to take the migrants to nearby James Madison High School to spend the night, The New York Times reports. On Tuesday, they were moved to James Madison High School when after-school programming at the school ended, a spokeswoman for the Education Department said. On Wednesday, students of the school had remote learning, to accommodate the migrant families.
Mayor Eric Adams said that migrants had been temporarily relocated “out of an overabundance of caution.” The city has resorted to the use of tent structures to house an influx of migrants during the last two years. About 70,000 people are currently staying in homeless shelters, including tents and dozens of hotels. The city is legally required to shelter anyone who asks for a bed.