New York City Mayor Eric Adams marked the third anniversary of Hurricane Ida by announcing significant new and ongoing initiatives to protect the city from flooding and climate-related threats. With over $1.2 billion invested in infrastructure improvements across all five boroughs, the city is enhancing drainage capacity, installing flood sensors, and developing innovative solutions like green infrastructure and Cloudburst projects. These efforts aim to safeguard New Yorkers’ lives and property, particularly in low-income, flood-prone areas, while also preventing future costly damages as the city continues to face the growing impacts of climate change.
To mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Ida, which brought the heaviest rainfall in New York City’s recorded history and tragically claimed the lives of 13 New Yorkers, New York City Mayor Eric Adams today updated New Yorkers on new and ongoing efforts to protect public safety and New Yorkers’ property by combating flooding and safeguarding the residents of New York City from the harmful and costly impacts of climate change. Since the start of this administration, the city has invested more than $1.2 billion in vital anti-stormwater flooding, public safety infrastructure in all five boroughs, ranging from traditional sewer upgrades to innovative green infrastructure solutions and more — and similar investments in anti-flooding infrastructure have been shown to prevent seven times as much damage as compared to the original investment.
Mayor Adams today celebrated milestones in five of these major public safety projects. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) completed major sewer upgrades that tripled drainage capacity in College Point and doubled it in Maspeth, preventing that water from putting New Yorkers in danger or causing property damage. The city also, this week, installed its 200th flood sensor in Corona, Queens, putting the administration on track to reach Mayor Adams’ target of 500 flood sensors well ahead of schedule. Additionally, the city broke ground on its first Cloudburst project at the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) South Jamaica Houses, which will keep nearly 3.5 million gallons of stormwater out of the sewer system each year. Finally, DEP completed its transformation of three acres of concrete medians in Queens Village into subsurface drainage chambers, engineered rock and soil, ornamental grasses, and perennial wildflowers that can collectively manage 5 million gallons of stormwater that would otherwise contribute to flooding.
“Keeping New Yorkers safe is my most important responsibility — and that responsibility includes protecting New Yorkers from the clear and present danger to life and property that flooding poses,” said Mayor Adams. “Our investments in green and grey infrastructure, as well as flood preparedness, will save lives and prevent billions in property damage, particularly for low-income New Yorkers living in these low-lying areas who simply can’t afford to rebuild following flood after flood. I came into office with a clear focus on public safety and protecting New Yorkers’ wallets, and with climate change continuing to produce more intense and more frequent extreme weather, investments like these are a key part of our public safety and affordability strategies.”
“Fast and furious rainfall means New York City must be — and is being — skillfully creative on how we protect our city. That’s why we are making every square foot do double duty,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. “We’re turning New York into a sponge: small green patches are pretty and absorb gallons of stormwater, ponds and basketball courts provide recreation and hold massive amounts of rainwater, and porous pavement soaks in the water rather than letting it pool and flood. We are completing needed sewer upgrades to address pain points during massive storms like Ida and smaller ‘five-year’ storms that happen with increasing regularity. And we’re doubling down on education and information with FloodNet sensors — because while we make progress on these massive investments, flooding is very much an emergency, and we must protect lives now while we plan for the future.”
“We have no greater responsibility than to keep New Yorkers safe, and that requires making sure tragic deaths like those during Hurricane Ida never happen again,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer. “The city’s new efforts to combat the effects of climate change, including the new Cloudburst project at South Jamaica Houses, are the kind of aggressive efforts we need to keep New Yorkers safe in their homes.”
“Our infrastructure was designed to function in a climate that we don’t live in anymore, but we are working hard to update it to protect New Yorkers from flooding,” said New York City Chief Climate Officer and DEP Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala. “From rain gardens to porous pavement, we are working faster and smarter to protect New Yorkers from the intense storms we see more frequently than ever before.”
“Three years after Hurricane Ida, the city is making major strides in flood mitigation and centering community input,” said MOCEJ Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson. “Our FloodNet sensors can help you take a different route to school or know when to deploy flood barriers — and, over time, city agencies will use this crucial data for vital infrastructure planning.”
“Our growing portfolio of climate related projects reflects the city’s changing needs as storms become more frequent and intense and sea levels continue to rise,” said DDC Commissioner Thomas Foley. “In the last fiscal year, in addition to our coastal resiliency work, DDC installed 1,249 rain gardens and infiltration basins and an additional 20,478 square feet of porous pavement to help manage stormwater on city streets before it reaches the sewer system. And in the coming years, along with our partners at DEP, we’re planning much more, including many more miles of porous pavement, plus work on cloudburst initiatives and new Bluebelts. DDC will continue to adapt so the city can adapt.”
“As the emergency management agency for one of the most diverse cities in the world, we understand the critical need for a multi-channel, multilingual, and multicultural communication strategy,” said New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) Commissioner Zach Iscol. “Flash floods can strike with little warning and pose a significant threat to life and property. That’s why we’re leveraging every tool at our disposal — from NotifyNYC alerts and WhatsApp messages to drones and invaluable partnerships with community-based organizations and elected officials. Our goal is to ensure that every New Yorker, no matter where they are or what language they speak, receives the vital information they need to stay safe during emergencies.”
Sewer System Investments and Upgrades
Over the course of the Adams administration, the city has installed dozens of miles of new sewers, significantly upgrading the system’s drainage capacity to handle millions of additional gallons of sudden and heavy rainfall during a storm. The administration recently completed two major projects in the frequently flooded Queens communities of Maspeth and College Point. The $106 million Maspeth project added more than a mile of new, very large sewers and nearly a mile of new water mains, and it used innovative construction techniques like micro-tunneling to significantly reduce the effects of construction on the local community. The $132 million College Point project added nearly 8.5 miles of new sewers and seven miles of new water mains, in addition to 300 new catch basins.
Additionally, DEP is installing slotted manhole covers that provide an alternate drainage point to help street level water drain into curbside catch basins in the event that a catch basin grate gets matted over with leaves, debris, or litter.
Cloudburst Program
Cloudbursts — or sudden, heavy downpours similar to what was seen during Hurricane Ida — can put lives in danger, damage property, disrupt critical infrastructure, and pollute New York’s waterways. The city’s Cloudburst Program manages these extreme downpours using localized grey and green infrastructure, open spaces, and other innovative methods of absorbing, storing, and transferring stormwater. Working together, these assets store excess stormwater until torrential rains pass and there is sufficient capacity in the neighborhood sewer system to better manage it.
This summer, the city broke ground on the first of these projects at NYCHA’s South Jamaica Houses, projected to be completed in 2025. The project will capture nearly 3.5 million gallons of stormwater annually, easing pressure on the sewer system and helping to reduce flooding. Additionally, the city recently received $100 million in federal funds to construct two additional Cloudburst projects in Corona and Kissena, and was shortlisted for $100 million more for projects in East Elmhurst and Central Harlem. Previously announced Cloudburst projects in Parkchester-Morris Park, the Bronx, East New York, Brooklyn, East Harlem, Manhattan and St. Alban’s, Queens, are currently being designed by engineers while work slated for Brownsville, Brooklyn, is anticipated to begin in the coming months. The Brownsville project was also awarded $24 million in federal funding.
Other Green Infrastructure
Green infrastructure projects create additional capacity for stormwater management by storing and absorbing excess rainwater, preventing it from entering (or overwhelming) the sewer system. Today, DEP completed its transformation of three acres of impermeable concrete medians in Queens Village into a green infrastructure system that can collect approximately 5 million gallons of stormwater from the area and help to reduce flooding. Additional large concrete medians in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens will be transformed into resilient green infrastructure medians beginning next year.
Furthermore, the city is installing seven miles of porous pavement — which unlike traditional asphalt-paved roadways, allows stormwater to pass through and be absorbed naturally into the ground — along Brooklyn roadways. This $32.6 million project, which will help prevent flooding, sewer backups into homes and businesses, and overflows into waterways, and is expected to be completed in early 2026. Additional porous pavement projects are in the pipeline for neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.
Additionally, the Adams administration is constructing a new, three-acre Bluebelt in Staten Island’s Midland Beach neighborhood. Bluebelts are ecologically-rich and cost-effective drainage ponds, where existing wetlands are reengineered so that they can naturally manage the precipitation that falls on streets and sidewalks. This project adds to the city’s network of nearly 100 Bluebelts, most of which are located on Staten Island, and builds on last October’s completion of a $110 million expansion of the New Creek Bluebelt. Bluebelts are a key part of the city’s strategy to mitigate inland flooding, and the Adams administration continues to actively evaluate locations in all five boroughs to expand the successful Bluebelt network.
Finally, DEP and DDC recently completed construction of more than 900 curbside rain gardens and infiltration basins across Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Whitestone, Queens. Each year, it is anticipated that these rain gardens will intercept approximately 58 million gallons of stormwater, keeping it out of the sewer system and helping to reduce flooding, sewer backups into homes and businesses, and overflows into waterways. To date, the city has built more than 10,500 curbside rain gardens, including 2,300 during the Adams administration.
Flood Preparedness
The city’s network of flood sensors provide real-time, street-level flood information through a free, online dashboard. This data allows residents, officials, and emergency responders to immediately react and respond to flooding conditions. Data gathered can also be used to compare historical hyperlocal flooding conditions and inform future mitigation efforts. On the first anniversary of Hurricane Ida, Mayor Adams set a goal of having 500 flood sensors in priority flooding areas by 2027 — and the city is now on track to meet that benchmark well ahead of schedule using a combination of surface flood sensors and piloting the use of traffic cameras for flood detection. This past week, the city installed its 200th sensor in Corona, Queens’ Louis Simeone Park.
Additionally, to help New Yorkers understand and prepare for the risks associated with rainfall-based flooding, the city has released a new map showing how much flooding results from different levels of rainfall under current and future sea level rise predictions. In July 2022, the city released “Rainfall Ready NYC,” an action-focused overview of the responsibilities New Yorkers and city government must share to combat intense storms, together, today.
Furthermore, the Adams administration has continued to expand its public emergency notification systems. Notify NYC — the public notification program run by NYCEM — has gained an additional 335,000 subscribers since fall 2021, informing more communities about weather conditions that may impact them. In April 2023, NYCEM developed a Basement Alerts group to deliver targeted messaging to New Yorkers living in basement-level dwellings. When activated, these alerts trigger phone calls, text messages, emails, and mobile notifications to subscribed communities to inform them of risks and action steps in the event of potential or imminent flood conditions. Since its inception, this Basement Alerts group has grown steadily, amassing over 5,600 subscribers.
The administration has also started to use drones to broadcast flood warnings in low-lying communities, to ensure that all residents are aware of any potential hazards. The drone mission reflects the administration’s commitment to exploring innovative technologies that can enhance the city’s emergency response. Drones have the added benefit of geographic specificity. During the early August 2024 flood events, the drones were sent to flood-prone neighborhoods to announce recorded warnings in English and Spanish.
Finally, this summer, DEP has partnered with elected officials, community boards, and local organizations to host Flood Preparedness Town Halls, where approximately 2,000 flood kits, including flood barriers, sump pumps, and flood sensors, are being distributed to residents. Senior staff and engineers have been on hand at these educational workshops to discuss what the city is doing to fortify neighborhoods in the face of climate change. The information and kits provided at these events empower residents and business owners to protect their properties from the damaging effects of extreme weather. So far, sessions have been held in Throggs Neck, Bronx, Red Hook and Bushwick, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens. Upcoming events will be held on September 17 in the Rockaways and on September 24 on Staten Island. DEP also distributed more than 9,000 60-gallon rain barrels to New Yorkers, free of charge. The 60-gallon rain barrels are easy to install and connect directly to a property’s gutter or downspout to capture and store stormwater that falls on the rooftop. The water collected in the rain barrel reduces the amount of stormwater that enters the city’s sewer system, helping to alleviate flooding while also protecting the health of local waterways.
“Three years after the floodwaters of Hurricane Ida took 13 precious lives, we have now deployed $1.2 billion in infrastructure to stop it from ever happening again,” said New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. “Across all five boroughs, we have implemented sewer upgrades, 200 flood sensors, the first Cloudburst stormwater management project, 3 acres of bioswales, and more. This will keep millions of gallons of water from overwhelming our sewer system, flooding our streets and homes, and causing untold damage. This is a common-sense use of taxpayer dollars: studies show that every $1 in flood hazard mitigation saves $7 in recovery costs. Together, we will keep all New Yorkers high and dry and stop flood damage in its tracks.”
“I’m pleased to see Mayor Adams invest $1.2 billion in vital anti-flooding and storm mitigation projects,” said New York State Assemblymember David I. Weprin. “Three years ago, as New York got slammed by Hurricane Ida, with its unprecedented flooding, lives were lost, and property damage was catastrophic. Since then, Mayor Adams has put plans in place that will prevent those devastating losses from happening in the future. I recently attended a DEP flood preparedness event where homeowners watched a presentation and then were given sump pumps, flood barriers, and a flood sensor alarm. This programming, along with the sewer and public safety infrastructure upgrades, will serve to prevent the damage we saw with Hurricane Ida. I want to thank Mayor Adams and his administration for making necessary improvements to keep the residents of New York City safe.”
“Last year, we announced the creation of green spaces to replace concrete medians in this neighborhood,” said New York State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky. “This dedicated funding for stormwater infrastructure in Eastern Queens shows the continued commitment we all have to mitigate flooding for our constituents. I thank the mayor and the New York City Council for making these projects a priority here and throughout the city.”
“As climate change increasingly impacts our city, it is imperative that we devise innovative solutions to mitigate the risks of flooding in urban areas. These measures are essential to safeguarding lives and enhancing coastal resilience in our communities,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson. “Drawing on the lessons from Hurricane Ida, neighborhoods like Kingsbridge, City Island, Throggs Neck, and other vulnerable areas that were severely affected will benefit from these citywide Stormwater Mitigation Efforts. I want to thank Mayor Adams, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the New York City Department of Design and Construction for their collaborative efforts and dedication to deploying the necessary resources to protect our residents and our city.”
September 10 , 2024 New York NY
Sources: Midtown Tribune news , NYC.gov
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Critics: While Mayor Adams emphasizes the urgency of addressing climate change and its role in causing extreme weather like flooding, it’s worth noting that the highest recorded temperature in U.S. history occurred over a century ago, in 1913. This raises questions about whether recent climate concerns are fully justified by historical temperature data. Critics argue that while investing in flood prevention is important, using climate change as the main justification may overlook other factors and lead to policies that could unnecessarily strain the economy without addressing the core issues.