Mayor Bloomberg on Bermuda golf course during Metro-North derailment: Report

UPDATED 8:10 P.M.: There might be an answer as to why Mayor Michael Bloomberg was MIA for most of the day in the aftermath of the Metro-North trail derailment.

As first responders were on scene around 7:30 a.m. at Sunday’s Metro-North derailment that killed four people and injured more than 60, Bloomberg was teeing off at a luxury resort in Bermuda, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It wasn’t until about four hours after he was briefed on the deadly derailment that he finally left the golf course and hopped a plane to the city, though the mayor told reporters Sunday night in New York that he was told about the situation about a half-hour after it happened.

The mayor and his office haven’t given any details about his whereabouts during most of the day Sunday. The office declined comment yesterday on the Wall Street Journal story.

“What can I do? I’m not a professional firefighter or a police officer. There’s nothing I can do,” Bloomberg told reporters Sunday night outside St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was visiting victims.

“What I can do is make sure that the right people from New York City — our police commissioner, our fire commissioner and our emergency management commissioner — are there and that they have all the resources that they want.”

“We responded in the ways that I think the city should be proud of our emergency first responders,” Bloomberg said. “They did exactly what they are supposed to do.”

The mayor came under fire during the 2010 Christmas weekend blizzard when he didn’t make an appearance during the first 24 hours of the storm that blanketed the city with 16 inches of snow. Outer borough residents criticized Bloomberg for failing to plow their streets for days.

Political consultant Andrew Moesel said the train tragedy was different than the blizzard because of the four deaths and dozens of injuries. He added that Bloomberg did make the effort to visit the victims less than 24 hours after the accident and there was very little that the mayor could do on the scene to aid with the investigation.

“We live in a world where the mayor can do his job via numerous modes of communications. I'm sure the mayor was helping the situation as he was traveling,” he said.

Hizzoner has less than a month left in office until Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio takes over.

De Blasio, however, also was a no-show at the scene Sunday, but his office said he was in contact with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and tweeted that “thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones of those killed and injured” in the derailment. He didn’t denounce Bloomberg’s lack of show during the crisis, but said “generally speaking” it would be important for a mayor to be there.

“My instinct on these things is to be present even if the city is not the lead,” he told reporters Monday.

Christina Greer, an assistant professor of political science at Fordham University, predicted that the debate over politicians’ vacation time will continue with the new administration, but added that critics will put de Blasio under a different filter when it comes to the topic.

“Are we holding Bloomberg to a different standard because he is a billionaire? The areas that people pick with de Blasio will be different and the tone will be different.”