A cold snap in New York City has left the rivers frozen; chunks of ice have put the NYC ferry out of service and has impacted delivery of ships carrying fuel to heat thousands of apartments across the boroughs.

"The harbor is frozen ice flows and boxed out the ships carrying essential fuel that provides millions of apartments with warmth," said Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Residents living at the Beach 41st Houses in Queens have been dealing with heat outages for several months, according to the tenant association president.

The mayor visited the NYCHA development on Wednesday morning where he announced a $38 million investment to install heat pumps in the 712-unit complex. The plan is to eventually roll these pumps out to more developments across the city.

"New Yorker's they hear a lot of talk, want they want to see is action, this is what this is about" the mayor said.

Over the last 24 hours, the NYCHA outage map shows there have been nine reported heat and hot water outages in properties across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, impacting over 5,000 people.

"Residents will be more comfortable in their homes and be able to control heating and cooling in their own apartments," said Lisa Bova-Hiatt, the CEO of the New York City Housing Authority.

The pumps were first installed at the Woodside Houses in Queens under a pilot program.

"Heat pumps are widely used across the globe...they are very reliable when maintained. The lifespan of the heat pump is about 20 years," said Louise Yeung, NYC chief climate officer.

The city did not provide an exact start date of the installation process but says it could take up to two years to complete.

"In the interim, NYCHA has heating staff assigned to the development on a daily basis and will continue to maintain the existing steam system and make any urgent repairs necessary to provide heat and hot water service. Last heating season, NYCHA resolved its heat outages in an average of less than seven hours, with 100 percent of issues resolved within 24 hours," NYCHA wrote in a statement.

The heat pumps are a part of the 'Clean For All" program. The mayor says the program is expected to meet more than 10,000 apartments by 2030.