Photo Courtesy City Councilman Bob Holden
Vehicles were left abandoned on several borough roads Tuesday.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Early Tuesday morning it felt like Hurricane Ida had returned to The World’s Borough with a vengeance.
Torrential downpours, basements flooded, cars left abandoned on thoroughfares—it felt like Sept. 1, 2021 all over again.
And the aftermath inspired three elected officials–U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing), Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) and Councilwoman Lynn Schulman (D-Forest Hills)—to pen the following statement:
“Once again, Queens is forced to endure flooding as a result of heavy rainfall, just nearly two weeks after the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ida devastating our borough.
Many constituents who were working toward rebuilding their lives now face additional setbacks, and many who were not impacted by Ida must now deal with the damage caused to their properties.
Forum Photo by Michael V. Cusenza
Steady downpours led to more flooded basements in Queens this week.
As we deal with the impacts of climate change, the threat of future floods will continue, which is why we need immediate action.
We are doing everything we can to make sure that Queens gets the proper funding to help mitigate flooding. This includes getting the city and state to use money from the federal infrastructure bill that was signed into law late last year. It is crucial that a portion of the funding allocated for New York be used to address this problem here in our borough.
Our offices have been in constant contact with city and state agencies, and we will continue to demand that these resources be used for things such as upgrading outdated sewers and catch basins so that our communities can be adequately protected from future storms.
Queens residents cannot continue rebuilding from one disaster to the next, only to wonder how much rain may fall. An immediate investment of infrastructure funding for needed upgrades will help save lives, and spare millions of people the economic burdens they face. This is the right thing to do, and it must be done.”
