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She also helped lead fellow elected officials, including Sens. Chuck Schumer (to Meng’s r.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (to Schumer’s r.) and President Joe Biden on a tour of the destruction caused by the storm.
By Forum Staff
Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) visited the homes of the Hurricane Ida victims in Queens, commemorating the 1-year anniversary of the storm making landfall in New York City. Stopping at the home of the Lama family in Woodside, Yue Lian Chen in Elmhurst, Darlene Hsu in Forest Hills and the home of Hong Sheng Leng in Flushing.
Meng also attended a press conference hosted by Gov. Kathy Hochul where she highlighted some of the efforts she has led in the last year, to further protect constituents from similar extreme weather events in the future. She also highlighted additional work that still needs to be addressed to prevent similar loss of life during future storms and hurricanes.
“In the year since the destruction of Hurricane Ida we have made numerous steps to make sure that Queens residents and the rest of the city don’t suffer the same fate as last year,” Meng said. “I have worked on the federal level, in conjunction with my state colleagues and alongside local officials to get Queens and New York City residents the funds and assistance they needed immediately after the storm and in the months since. While we have done a lot to help the community return to its prosperous state before the storm, there is still much more to be done. I look forward continuing my fight on the federal level to make sure Queens and the rest of the city has everything it needs to protect itself against the next major storm.”
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Rep. Meng visited the homes of constituents in the days following Hurricane Ida.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm the congresswoman helped launch a Disaster Recovery Center to provide essential daily resources for residents; also securing over $11 billion in disaster relief for the city from the federal government.
In the year since the storm hit New York the Congresswoman helped pass both the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill and the Water Resources Development Act in the House. While the WRDA bill would authorize the Army Corps of Engineers to spend almost $120 million for infrastructure upgrades in Queens, the congresswoman has repeatedly called on the city and state to allocate part of the infrastructure bill funding for additional upgrades in some of the most heavily affected areas in the district.
Many of the district’s sewers, catch basin, rain and flooding overflow systems have not been upgraded in decades, and while there have been important efforts to make sure the district is better suited for the next extreme weather event, there is still much more work to be done.
