New York City Mayor Eric Adams appeared live on WABC’s “Eyewitness News at Noon” on August 9, 2024, to discuss the city’s preparedness for the remnants of Storm Debby. Mayor Adams highlighted the city’s efforts to mitigate flooding risks, including pre-positioning response teams and advising residents to avoid travel during the storm. He also emphasized ongoing inspections in parks and flood-prone areas, urging New Yorkers to stay safe and off the roads as the storm progresses.
Liz Cho: Well, we continue to track the remnants of Debby that has now started to move through our area.
Sandra Bookman: And, of course, the city’s been busy preparing for the storm. Joining us now live is New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for sitting down with us this morning. We know you’re busy.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. You’re quite welcome.
Bookman: Now, with Debby going to make its presence known, what are you guys doing here in the city specifically to sort of batten down the hatches, get things ready to deal with any potential flash flooding in vulnerable areas around the five boroughs?
Mayor Adams: And, you know, we’re coming off a previous storm, so the ground is already saturated with water, and that brings additional problems. But we’re clear on notifications and preparations. As you see from your photo of the trees down, when the water is saturated, our soil, you know, these problems happen. So it’s about using technology to notify people in those low-lying areas and areas where basements are prone to flooding, and handing out the emergency kits that the DEP, they have been handing out as well, just getting prepared coming off the previous storm during the week.
Cho: Mr. Mayor, you talked about how saturated the ground is right now. How worried are you? You know, New York City is filled with so many beautiful parks, Central Park in particular, with all of those big historic trees. Have crews been able to go out and inspect and make sure that those trees are as secure as possible, considering how wet the weather is and the wind gusts that we are expecting today?
Mayor Adams: Yes, and in fact, my deputy mayor, Meera Joshi, she shared while she was in the park earlier this week, a tree fell in the area. That’s a problem when the ground is saturated and waterlogged to this level. And so we do those preliminary inspections, but this is really a day we’re asking New Yorkers, if you don’t have to be outdoors, don’t be outdoors. Particularly on our roadways, we had to do a number of rescues on the highways throughout the week. And we’re just asking, this is a good [inaudible] to watch one of those old movies, or use public transportation as you’re moving around.
Bookman: And look, we know that we will likely have some impacts from the storm, whether it’s trees down, whether it’s flooded roads, that kind of thing. Are you guys already pre-positioning folks in areas that you expect to have issues so that you’ll be good to go once the storm is out of here and you can get back, get into the business of getting the city back up on its feet faster?
Mayor Adams: Yeah, and we saw that earlier this week. We were inundated with almost three inches of rainfall, particularly the Northern Bronx area. We believe that Northern Bronx and Queens will be hit as well. But you’re right. You saw the next day, the city was up and operating. This is a city that never sleeps. After we are hit with these storms, the team is immediately out there clearing the roadways and really allowing New Yorkers to go on with their business as usual. The most important thing is while the storm is taking place, it’s a good idea, as I stated, to be off the roadways and just allow nature to do its thing so we can come back and do our thing of clearing our streets and getting us back operating.
Cho: Mayor, one more quick question for you. How worried are you about flooding in Lower Manhattan, the seaport in particular? We have seen, you know, that area has been such a trouble spot, especially during Sandy. How worried are you about it for today?
Mayor Adams: We’re always concerned about that. And as you know, we have many initiatives that we are putting in place for future storms. But right now, they’re not fully in place. The wall we’re building along the East River. But our goal is to make sure that, again, if we can keep people off the roads and hopefully this storm won’t sit over the city and keep moving forward. We did well last week. We were not impacted with major flooding like we saw during some of the previous years of storms of this magnitude. And, you know, you’ve got to keep your fingers crossed because, you know, Mother Nature is going to do what she does.
Bookman: And then we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. Mayor Eric Adams, thank you so much for sitting down with us this afternoon. I’m sure we’ll be in touch with you and your office throughout the evening as the storm moves through and we try to get our stuff back together.
Cho: Yeah, it’ll be a busy afternoon.
Mayor Adams: Yeah, I’ll be in the streets looking at some of the locations with the team. And we’re going to keep New Yorkers impressed. Thanks a lot for having me.
Cho: All right. Thank you. Thank you, mayor.
August 9 2024 New York NY
Sources: Midtown Tribune news, NYC.gov
Big New York news BigNY.com