Superstorm Sandy has shut down the downtown Manhattan offices ofNew York state insurance regulators, causing a scramble to continuedelivering essential services to the public and industry.

David Neustead, a spokesman for the New York State Department ofFinancial Services confirmed that the department has lost itsoffices on Beaver St., "severely" disrupting the work thedepartment does from there.

"We are finding temporary space and trying to get back up andrunning," says Neustead.

To deal with the current crisis, the department has extended thedeadline on a host of filings and is utilizing mobile communicationuntil alternative space is located, he says.

Neustead says it is too early to tell how many insurance claimshave been filed since Superstorm Sandy struck last week. Thedepartment will issue that information once it has beencollected.

He says the department has an Insurance Emergency OperationsCenter where representatives with the major insurance carriers joindepartment officials to communicate problems and deal with themquickly, such as getting adjusters out to a certain area. Overall,the process has been working well.

Yesterday, the department set up a mobile command center atMiller Field in Staten Island, N.Y. to help consumers withinsurance questions or complaints.

A department representative there says the mobile command centerassisted over 120 people. Most of the questions people askedconcerned how to go through the process of filing a claim,according to the representative.

 A call to the New Jersey Department of Banking andInsurance for an update on how the department is handling thiscrisis was not immediately returned.