Mayor Bloomberg spoke today about Irene's as-yet uncalculated financial toll: "It’s a little bit early to tell. Keep in mind our first response is to do whatever we need and then figure out how to pay for it afterwards in terms of how much the city spent. If you have damage, call 311. We will apply for federal monies that we think will be available. Senator gillibrand called me this morning asking if she could be helpful in terms of our applications. We’ll see. I think, keep in mind, there were tourists who couldn’t get here but there were tourists who couldn’t get out who still spent money. There were people who didn’t go to bars but a lot of people went to package stores and bought alcohol. Some purchases were going to be just delayed so, you know, it’s a mixed bag. It was not great for the economy that on a summer weekend lots of places at the beach had to close and those revenues they will not pick up you either spend the money or you don’t. It isn't a postponable purchase. But it’s built into most people’s business plans and we’ll try to get as much federal monies as we can. I don’t think in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t something that most people can survive through. There will be some more badly hurt and we’ll have to find some ways to help them."