David Friedman / NBC News file

Joe Casale, far right, watches workers remove debris from his flooded home in Breezy Point, N.Y., on Nov. 1.

BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- A first-of-its-kind home repair program pioneered by the federal government and local agencies has made thousands of New York City homes livable since Hurricane Sandy, but thousands of other homeowners are still waiting for help, and growing more frustrated with each passing day.

“Nobody communicates anything to you,” said Joe Casale, a 52-year-old service engineer who lives in Breezy Point with his wife, Katie, and three sons. “I have to keep on calling up and busting people’s chops to find out what’s going on. It’s ridiculous. … It’s not rapid for one. We started up on Nov. 15 and they’re just getting around to us now. … They held us back a good month I would say.”

Despite assessments like Casale's, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, widely vilified for its response after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has mostly avoided a similar public relations disaster in the wake of Sandy. FEMA officials say that’s at least partly due to the Rapid Repairs program, aimed at getting victims back home quickly so they can focus on rebuilding.

The program, which provides free utility repairs and replacement equipment like water heaters and boilers to qualified homeowners, has restored services to more than 11,800 residences in New York City, officials say. Work is under way on about 1,900 more dwellings.

Two neighboring New York counties and two New Jersey communities are also running the same program, which they call STEP (Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power).

While the idea of Rapid Repairs initially received positive reviews, critics say the execution has been far from flawless. Nearly three months after the Oct. 29 storm, some 7,000 New York City households have not yet received help through the program.

That assessment is echoed by those still waiting, who tell stories of canceled or missed appointments, improperly installed equipment and a disorganized bureaucracy where their complaints fall on deaf ears. 

Barry Fischer, a 45-year-old electrician who also lives in this coastal New York City enclave with his wife, Christina, and their five children, called the program “nonexistent,” noting they had been waiting since mid-November for electrical work and a hot water heater. 

His wife, a 35-year-old college professor, said she had been going to the Rapid Repairs’ offices every day to find out when the workers would come to her home. She also made dozens of calls, chased contractors’ trucks through her neighborhood on foot and in her car, and one time even tried to cut them off and block them in with her vehicle in order to force a conversation. 

The final straw came last week, when she met a Rapid Repairs’ worker looking for a nearby home that is only occupied in the summer.

“I was really freaking out,” she said. “… And that’s terrible. Why should somebody be really that crazy in order to get assistance?”

David Friedman / NBC News

Christina Fischer plays with her disabled daughter Georgia, 4, and son Timothy, 7, who is severely hearing impaired, after school on Jan. 14 in Rockaway Beach, N.Y.

Officials overseeing the program acknowledge there have been missteps and say they understand the frustration building among those who still don’t have basic utilities. But they defend the premise of Rapid Repairs -- that residents can rebuild their homes much more quickly when they are living in them -- and vow to learn from the mistakes, some of which resulted from their efforts to act decisively.

The program was launched two weeks after the storm struck, leaving about 20,000 residential buildings in the city with some damage or disruption to their utilities.

“We thought that with some basic repair work … that would enable families to basically shelter in place, be in their homes, be safe and then begin the real work of rebuilding and doing it in their communities not away from (them),” Cas Holloway, deputy mayor for operations, told NBC News. “We wanted to move fast.”

For many Sandy victims, that’s what happened.

Nine general contractors hired by the city, who in turn have more than 100 subcontractors working with them, had completed repairs on more than 6,800 buildings, comprising 11,800 residential units, as of Jan. 21, according to the mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery. Crews had started work on about 1,900 others.

Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Residents of the Northeast are still picking up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

Launch slideshow

About 3,000 other households opted out of the program for various reasons, including not wanting to wait for repairs, Holloway said, leaving fewer than 7,000 residences still waiting.

Homeowners had from Nov. 13 through Jan. 14 to sign up for the pilot program. The city will eventually submit the bill to FEMA, which preliminarily authorized spending of up to $500 million and is expected to reimburse between 80 percent and 90 percent of the cost.

The cost for each household is supposed to be about $10,000, though it could go higher depending on the work required, said Michael Byrne, the senior FEMA official in New York state for the Sandy response and recovery.

FEMA: What the program covers

FEMA said it no longer uses the ubiquitous travel trailers that were deployed to temporarily house thousands of Katrina victims, and Holloway and Byrne said mobile homes weren’t viable in the densely-populated urban environment of New York City. They also carry a hefty price tag of $250,000, and take months to set up, they said.

Those already helped by the program said they're happy with the results.

Fran McCabe, who responded to an NBC News inquiry about the program on Facebook, wrote: “Waited for weeks but finally got a hot water heater and then a few weeks later got a new furnace. Work crews were WONDERFUL. … We're very grateful to the city for this program. It would have been much faster to do the repairs privately but the cost was a hardship for us at this time.”

But for families like the Fischers, whose children include a 7-year-old son who is severely hearing impaired and a 4-year-old daughter with Charcot Marie Tooth Disease, a common nerve disorder that can make it hard to walk, and apraxia, a speech disorder, the intended jumpstart has proven to be a roadblock.

They still don’t have central heat, hot water or working toilets in their two-story home, which forced them to sign a one-year rental agreement on a house in Jackson Heights in northern Queens. They’ve had to dip into Barry’s 401(k) savings, since the FEMA rental aid doesn’t cover their entire rent, and they have to pay their mortgage and co-op fees on a home they can’t live in. Adding to the financial strain: Their insurance will cover just one-third of the $300,000 cost to rebuild. 

'Why ... all this insanity?'
While the city has an “active high priority list” for residents in the greatest need of shelter, including the elderly and disabled, and Christina had informed the program many times about her disabled children, she found out last week that they weren’t on it.

Finally, a Rapid Repairs’ plumber showed up with a new boiler last Friday, Christina Fischer said. In the days since, electricians have done most of the wiring though there is still no heating system for the first floor.

“I don’t understand why a family with disabled children would have had to go through all this insanity in order to get this done when this was the whole kind of point of the program … to help the people who needed it most from the get-go,” she said. “It came to me going there every day, me becoming very threatening for it to get done, and I think that’s really, really unfortunate.”

Holloway, the deputy mayor of operations, and Byrne, of FEMA, acknowledge that there were challenges getting the pilot program up and running, which led to some delays.

Holloway said they switched from a “first-in, first-out” service model to a block-by-block method in order to avoid “wasting half a shift in transport.” They also had to order equipment and set up staging areas for it that were easy for contractors to access.

“There have been a lot of challenges setting this up,” he said, noting it was “unfortunate” some of the people who signed up early “probably have now had to wait longer than really they expected to and more than we would have liked them to.”

Holloway said the work has accelerated as the process has improved, noting that for a recent three-week period crews had worked on 100 homes a day on average. He said the program also is less expensive per household than mobile homes, though he could not say how much money the overall city bill will be.

Despite the problems, Byrne and Holloway both say they believe it could become a model for disaster response.

“I think it will end up being pretty remarkable that families are back in much faster than they might have been under a different model where you might … go rent a place for a year and then come back,” Holloway said. “… That is a terrible option for a homeowner and a family, and it’s terrible for a neighborhood.”

David Abramson, deputy director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said he was initially impressed with the Rapid Repairs’ concept because it addressed some key barriers facing communities when they begin the recovery process, such as having credentialed and trusted contractors.

But he said execution of the program has been spotty.

“I certainly don’t want to throw them under the bus so quickly because they’re having a lot of hiccups in the initial phase,” he said, “(but) they’re clearly having major issues.”  

“I think it falls in the category of good plan, poor implementation,” he added.  

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Cranes work to remove several feet of sand deposited on Ocean Avenue by Hurricane Sandy in Sea Bright, N.J., on Oct. 31.

In the suburban New York City counties of Suffolk and Nassau, where the STEP program was announced in mid-November, more than 540 homes had been repaired by Jan. 15, out of some 2,350 households that signed up, according to FEMA.

The STEP program also is operating in two coastal New Jersey communities: Sea Bright, where 115 property owners have signed up, and in Ocean City, where enrollment data was not available.

Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long told NBC News work there is expected to begin in mid-March. A town meeting last week addressed STEP, and she said people were "grateful (for the program), they want to come home." Very few residents have insurance settlements, or they've come in much lower than their losses, leaving many of them in limbo.

“Sandy devastated this little town,” she said. “We lost every business, 75 percent of our homes are not habitable. It’s a ghost town. ... Almost three months later, we are not getting very far. And so something like STEP at least gives us a chance to start moving back to the recovery.”

But some of those in New York City who are just beginning to receive help from Rapid Repairs said they wish they had never waited on it.

Casale, the Breezy Point engineer, had to take a loan from his brother-in-law to help cover repairs he and his wife started on their own.

They’ve done most of the electrical work, but with no heat and water, paint wouldn't dry and they couldn’t get someone to work on their kitchen due to the cold. 

They finally received a hot water heater and a boiler on Jan. 11, but after the installation was finished the boiler began leaking and shorted out the electronic controls on Monday. They’re now waiting for a replacement part to arrive. 

“It was one big fiasco after another,” Katie Casale, 49, a personal assistant at an insurance company, said Tuesday. 

On top of that, Joe Casale found out from Rapid Repairs on Monday that the contractor had already submitted a bill saying the work was complete.

“I’m paying rent and I’m paying a mortgage for three months, so how rapid is rapid?” he said. “It’s not a rapid repair. … We wanted to get back in here.”

Like the Casales, Christina Fischer said her family wishes they hadn't had to rely on the program. 

“Very few of us would have waited for Rapid Repairs if we all had the money to do this, but we don’t,” she said. The program is “a great idea … but winter’s upon us and it’s not done.”  

Related:

Superstorm Sandy: Residents consider future as demolitions begin in Breezy Point

Sandy-struck Breezy Point facing 'greatest historical challenge'

Sandy victims on the move, but temporary housing 'will never be ... home'

Full coverage of Sandy's aftermath from NBC News

Starpix, Dave Allocca / AP

In this image released by Starpix, Bruce Springsteen and the E street Band perform at 12-12-12 The Concert for Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden in New York on Dec. 12.

NEW YORK — Charities in New York state have collectively raised more than $400 million for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, the state's attorney general said Thursday.

A survey of 88 nonprofit groups by Eric Schneiderman's office found that as of mid-December, the fundraising for storm victims had been dominated by five charities, led by the American Red Cross, which had raised $188 million, the Robin Hood Foundation, which had taken in $67 million and The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, which collected $45 million.

The Empire State Relief Fund raised another $15.4 million and The Salvation Army's eastern U.S. division raised $14.3 million.

Obama calls on Congress to act on Hurricane Sandy relief

Donors can log on to the attorney general's website to see how those organizations and 83 others say they intend to spend that money.

Schneiderman said regulators will be following up with the groups to get more information about the services they have provided.

"The generosity of the public and the hard work of charities in response to Hurricane Sandy is inspiring. As we continue to monitor charitable activities related to Sandy relief, it is essential that nonprofit organizations operate in the most transparent way possible," he said in a statement.

The list of groups that responded to the survey included small groups who recruit volunteers to gut damaged homes, food banks and agencies that distribute medication.

NJ voters displaced by Sandy will get chance to vote by email

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, named for a firefighter killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, said it had raised $4 million as of Dec. 5, and anticipated spending $2.5 million of that money giving home supply store gift cards to people with damaged homes.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which had been involved in rescuing animals from flooded neighborhoods, and then boarding hundreds of displaced animals, said donors had given it $1.3 million by the end of November.

Red Cross officials told the attorney general that as of Dec. 10, the organization had distributed more than 8.7 million meals and snacks in the disaster zone, provided 81,000 shelter stays and distributed $30 million in relief supplies. The Red Cross said it anticipated that it would have spent $110 million on the storm response by the end of December.

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The House GOP came under a blistering bipartisan assault Wednesday for punting on Sandy relief, with Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie complaining he couldn’t even get Speaker John Boehner to return his calls.

Fallout from the surprise vote pullback on a $60 billion aid package mounted by the hour with cries of outrage and calls for revenge.

By late afternoon, it seemed like the onslaught was having an effect. The House scheduled a Friday vote on $9 billion in flood insurance funds, to be followed by a Jan. 15 vote on another $51 billion in assistance.

It was unclear if the larger allocation would pass – or if the belated vote would mollify the New York and New Jersey politicians who unleashed unusually personal attacks against Boehner and other House Republicans.

House to vote on Sandy funding Friday, placating outraged lawmakers

Earlier, New York Rep. Pete King said his Republican colleagues had exposed a bias against the blue states of the Northeast and that anyone from the area who donates money to them “should have his head examined.”

“They can’t count on any vote from me now,” he said on MSNBC.

Christie, who has been touted as a possible White House contender, put the blame for the delay squarely on Boehner and marveled that he called the Ohioan four times before he would take his call.

“Shame on you, Congress,” he said, adding that he has received no explanation for the “disappointing and disgusting” decision.

The $60 billion request for assistance for to victims of Superstorm Sandy has been passed by the Senate, and House supporters were pushing for a Tuesday night vote.

Instead, King said, Boehner “just walked off” the floor and had an aide break the news that there would be no vote. The House adjourned on Wednesday without considering the measure; lawmakers are back Thursday for an hour before they gavel in the 113^th Congress.

While some Republicans have criticized the aid package for funds not directly linked to Sandy, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said the speaker is “committed to getting this bill passed this month.”

That promise didn’t quiet the fury.

“Totally obscene,” said Tom Jordan, a former firefighter whose house in Rockaway, Queens, was flooded by the storm that killed 120 people and damaged almost 400,000 homes.  

“They’re quibbling about $60 billion? That’s nothing as far as the federal budget goes. They should come down here and see what the beach looks like. They want to wait? We need repairs before the next hurricane season.”

Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican who represents parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn, called the delay “a personal betrayal.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand dared Boehner to visit Staten Island, then added that she doubts “he has the dignity nor the guts to do it.”

First Read: 'Betrayal': Congress punts on Sandy recovery funding, infuriating local lawmakers

“They’re a bunch of idiots,” Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, a Conservative, said of House Republicans. “There’s no other logical reason they’d be doing this.”

In a joint statement, Christie and New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, accused the house of a “dereliction of duty.”

“When American citizens are in need we come to their aid,” they said. “That tradition was abandoned in the House last night.”

But it was King who really let his Republican colleagues have it.

“The fact is that the dismissive attitude that was shown last night toward New York, New Jersey and Connecticut typifies, I believe, a strain in the Republican Party,” he said on the House floor.

“I can’t imagine that type of indifference, that cavalier attitude being shown to any other part of the country,” he added.

“We cannot believe this cruel knife in the back was delivered to our region… This is not the United States of America! This should not be the Republican Party. This should not be the Republican leadership.”

Although he said he is not thinking of switching parties, King suggested New Yorkers should hit House Republicans who don’t support the bill where it hurts – in the campaign coffer.

“These people have no problem finding New York when it comes to raising money. They only have a problem when it comes to allocating,” he fumed.

“If this is not delivered and very quickly…anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans after this should have their head examined,” he added on MSNBC.

Boehner is supposed to meet with Republican members of the New York and New Jersey delegations on Wednesday to reassure them that the relief bill will be passed.

But King expressed skepticism about a quick vote, noting a majority of House Republicans don’t support the bill and Washington will be soon be preoccupied with the inauguration and the State of the Union.

President Obama called on the House to bring the bill to a vote immediately and “pass it without delay for our fellow Americans.”

It’s unclear what impact the vote delay with have. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency testified this month that it had enough funding to “respond to the immediate needs.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) defended Boehner’s move, blaming the Senate for padding the relief package with non-essential funding.

“The Senate didn’t do their job. They sent us a bunch of pork, and then left town,” he said on “Fox and Friends.”

NBC News' Tom Curry and Frank Thorp contributed to this report.

Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Residents of the Northeast are still picking up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

Launch slideshow

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AP Photo/Office of the Mayor of New York

Artist's rendering of a proposed 625-foot Ferris wheel, billed as the world's largest, planned as part of a retail and hotel complex along the Staten Island waterfront in New York.

The man who wants to build the world’s biggest Ferris wheel in a flood zone of Staten Island says he wasn’t scared off by the damage and death caused by superstorm Sandy.

But Richard Marin, the developer of the plan to erect the 625-foot structure, said he's been forced to confront the fears of residents of the ravaged New York City borough.

Marin said he can “thank Hollywood” for doomsday scenarios in which people envision his wheel snapping off its posts and “rolling across Staten Island” the next time a hurricane blows up the East Coast.

Even though the $500 million project – which includes mall and hotel -- would be built on land that took on four feet of water during Sandy, Marin told NBC News that he doesn’t share those worries.

For one thing, he expects to build at least one or two feet above the level that the federal government deems the flood zone, with all the vital mechanical and electrical equipment safely out of reach of a storm surge.

At meeting after meeting, he’s told residents that even if high winds somehow loosened the wheel, it wouldn’t crash down; it would be left dangling by cables much like a Midtown Manhattan crane that came loose during Sandy.

With an independent power “microgrid” that relies on alternative energy, a kitchen and a first-aid facility, the complex could even be used as a public shelter if Staten Island gets walloped by Mother Nature again.

“All of those things have helped a lot with the natural knee-jerk reaction of: ‘What happens when the next big storm comes and this thing falls on our head?’” said Marin, a former Wall Street banker.

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The wheel plan has the backing of City Hall and Staten Island’s top elected official, but some people are still uneasy about such a massive waterfront project post-Sandy.

"Before the storm, I don't think that anyone had really given much consideration to the fact that these projects are being built in a flood plain," Beryl Thurman, an environmental activist, told The Associated Press.

The tourist attraction, she said, "should be put on a back burner until the city of New York can come up with real answers."

Nancy Rooney, a nurse, said the developer’s full-speed-ahead approach struck the wrong note at the wrong time.

“It was in poor taste to be discussing a Ferris wheel and all this glamor -- it was very hard to embrace this when you knew that your colleagues and their family members were devastated, and there were people who don't have heat or electricity or homes," she told the AP after attending a public meeting.

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Marin admits he “bruised some sensibilities” but said it was for the greater good.

“We’re convinced of the viability of this project,” he said. “People say: Should you be talking about something as frivolous as an amusement? … Now, more than ever, Staten Island needs the kind of economic development this project has to offer.”

The goal is to have it up and running by the end of 2015. Long before then, though, Marin hopes to secure a corporate sponsor that will put its name on the wheel at the cost of many millions a year.

He said that company executives have not been as skittish as some Staten Islanders.

“I don’t think there have been undue concerns because of the storm,” he said.

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