By Michael V. Cusenza
On Monday, the third anniversary of Hurricane Ida, Mayor Eric Adams 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.
Ida brought the heaviest rainfall in the city’s recorded history and claimed the lives of 13 New Yorkers.
Since Adams moved into Gracie Mansion, 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.
Adams on Monday celebrated milestones in five of these major public safety projects. The City Department of Environmental Protection and City Department of Design and Construction 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, putting the administration on track to reach 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 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.
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.
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 and Whitestone. 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 Ida, 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’s 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.
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. So far, sessions have been held in Throggs Neck, Red Hook and Bushwick and Jamaica. Upcoming events will be held on Sept. 17 in the Rockaways and on Sept. 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.
