De Blasio announces new measures following deadly flooding in NYC
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced Friday that New York City was enacting new measures following massive flooding Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.
“We have to handle this differently because we’ve now been shown an entirely different situation,” de Blasio said, noting that more than a dozen New Yorkers had died from the storm.
“We’re going to in particular focus on a different kind of warning, a much more severe kind of warning and a much more severe set of actions, very physical actions, that bluntly will be a jolt to people and a shock to people that we even are talking about these things,” he added.
Among the new measures are more frequent uses of travel bans that would require people to vacate streets, subways and other public places.
De Blasio also said more evacuation efforts are needed for people living in basement apartments.
“We understand there has to be a different kind of evacuation for folks in basement apartments and in some other areas of the city as well,” de Blasio said. “If we are seeing this kind of rain, we have to have an evacuation mechanism that can reach them. And again, this is a very forceful measure. It’s not just saying to people, you have to get out of your apartment. It’s going door to door with our first responders and other city agencies to get people out.”
The city will be sending out messages and cellphone alerts to those living in basement dwellings to alert them about “the vulnerabilities they face in these kinds of rain events,” he said.
The initiatives are a part of what de Blasio dubbed the “Climate Driven Rain Response.”
More than 40 people have died in the Northeast as a result of the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which barreled into the region after making landfall in Louisiana. At least a dozen people have died in Louisiana due to the hurricane alone.
New York City and New Jersey issued states of emergency and the National Weather Service issued its first flash flood emergency warnings for both New York City and New Jersey.
To be clear… this particular warning for NYC is the second time we’ve ever issued a Flash Flood Emergency (It’s the first one for NYC). The first time we’ve issued a Flash Flood Emergency was for Northeast New Jersey a an hour ago. https://t.co/7k55jeXbpb
— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) September 2, 2021
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