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Thousands of borough basements were flooded during Hurricane Ida.
By Forum Staff
Following the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ida devastating Queens, and local floods occurring again last week, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) on Tuesday led a letter to Mayor Eric Adams, urging him to consider implementing a voluntary buyout program for homes in the borough that are at risk of severe flooding during storms.
The correspondence, signed by several other Queens elected officials, encourages the mayor to use the $187 million in federal Ida relief money that New York City received from the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Funding (CDBG-DR). The money was included in the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, a bill that Meng helped pass in Congress last year. The City is presently finalizing a plan for using the funds which can go toward purchasing local homes.
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In 2019, the collapse of an old pipe caused an extensive flood of raw sewage that damaged dozens of South Queens homes.
“In Queens, lives were turned upside down by the unprecedented flooding that the remnants of Hurricane Ida caused last year, and constituents continue to pick up the pieces from the damage they sustained,” said Meng. “And many who were impacted by Ida were also affected by last week’s flooding, forcing them to endure additional setbacks. In order to address this issue in our borough, we must use every tool that is at our disposal, and implementing a voluntary buyout program, in conjunction with my call to upgrade our sewers and catch basins with money from the federal infrastructure bill, would go a long way toward helping to combat the problem, and improve the safety and well-being of our communities. We must act to help save lives and prevent future property damage.”
According to the CDBG-DR, funds may be used for designing and implementing a buyout program in which the city could purchase properties in a target area with the intent to demolish the structures to create park amenities, open space, or flood storage/overflow areas.
The letter is signed by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Jr.; Queens State Sens John Liu, Toby Stavisky and Leroy Comrie; Queens Assemblymembers Andrew Hevesi and Catalina Cruz; and Queens Councilmembers Linda Lee, Bob Holden, and Sandra Ung.
