Local residents are without electricity or running water for almost a week after an electrical transformer supplying power to downtown areas blew up on the night of the storm. Many of them live in public housing high-rise buildings, up to 30 floors high. Filling up gasoline containers from a fuel truck. The gas will be used to power generators to pump water out basements of buildings which must be done before the electricity can be restored. Tropical Storm Sandy hit New York and other parts of the north eastern United States on the evening of 29 October 2012.