UN headquarters to reopen after 3 days of closure

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations said here Wednesday that its headquarters in New York will be back to normal business on Thursday after three days of closure due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy.  

The UN reopening was contained in an email message to the press from the Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit of the UN Department of Public Information.

The UN headquarters in New York has been closed for the past three days due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy.

Superstorm Sandy brought about serious water damage to the chamber of the UN Security Council, which was moved to the UN General Assembly building before the current renovation started some two years ago, prompting the 15-nation UN body to relocate a special meeting to a temporary base on Wednesday, diplomats said.

The current Security Council chamber is located in the basement of the UN General Assembly building overlooking the East River, which spilled over into Manhattan due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy.

The Security Council called a meeting in a hurry to adopt an emergency resolution extending the mandate of the African-UN peacekeeping mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, for seven days.

The meeting, which kicked off at around 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, was originally scheduled to take place earlier this week because the mandate was to end on Wednesday. However, the council gathering was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy which hit New York City, the seat of the UN headquarters, on Monday.

AMISOM's seven-day mandate extension was adopted to give time for the Security Council to meet next week in order to renew the mandate of the peacekeeping force for 12 months, diplomats said.      

During the closure, accredited correspondents were not allowed back into the UN headquarters on the east side of Manhattan, downtown area of New York City, one security guard told Xinhua on Tuesday that only "essential personnel", such as engineers and maintenance workers, were given a green light to enter the compound on the First Avenue because they were of help to the recovery of the UN complex in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy has left almost a quarter of New York City homes without power as the hurricane strength downed power lines, causing power outages and fires in the affected areas in the past few days.