US government seeks apartments, hotels for Sandy evacuees

(Reuters) – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today federal agencies are looking for apartments and hotel rooms for people displaced by superstorm Sandy.

“Our goal is to try to get people out of the shelters,” Napolitano said at a news conference in New Jersey with Governor Chris Christie.

Earlier in the day, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated the city needs temporary housing for as many as 40,000 city residents.

Neither Napolitano nor Christie provided an estimate for the number of New Jersey residents displaced when Sandy swept over the northeast coastline on Monday night