Sanders Presents Flooding-Related Information at Community Meeting

State Senator Sanders Jr. (D-Rochdale Village, Far Rockaway) presented insurance and flooding-related information at a community meeting on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 at Battalion Pentecostal Assembly Church in Arverne. It featured representatives from the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, NYC Department of City Planning, FEMA, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and the Bridge Insurance Agency. 

“Continuous flooding during high tide and disastrous weather have been plaguing the Rockaway community for years,” Senator Sanders said. “As someone who represents most of the Rockaways and as a life-long resident here, it is important for me to ensure that everyone be prepared and informed about the critically important issue of climate change and how we can reduce our vulnerability."

When it comes to climate change, the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency, examines sustainability and ways to reduce negative contributions to climate change. Primarily they focus on ways to reduce carbon emissions and the use of fossil fuels, while improving air quality. The resiliency portion of the office works to adapt to risks of climate change - the ones that cannot be changed like sea level rise, frequent and intense storms, more rain, and increased heat. 

Residents who are concerned about climate change, and how it will affect them, can find out where they are located on a flood map, get a flood insurance estimate, and learn about ways to lower flooding risks and insurance costs by visiting floodhelpny.org, which is the result of a collaboration between NYCORR, the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery and the Center for NYC Neighborhoods. 

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for street infrastructure as it relates to water and sewer mains, catch basins and seepage basins The later is a catch basin that is not connected to a storm sewer and acts as a dry well which can hold water for 24 - 48 hours, explained Karen Ellis of DEP. She advised residents who encounter a sewer overflow to report it to 311. Ellis also spoke about the importance of not clogging drains with kitchen grease, which is one of the causes of sewer backups.

On a related note, homeowners who are concerned about the cost of water and sewer line repairs have the option of purchasing insurance through a company called American Water Resources. AWR is the exclusive service line protection provider of NYC's DEP. Normal wear and tear, aging pipes and  invasive tree roots, can all cause damage. Typical water line repairs can cost between $3,000 and $5,000, while an average sewer line replacement can cost between $10,000 - $15,000. 

In the years after Superstorm Sandy, Sanders began hosting these types of meetings to discuss and address the flooding issues experienced by many of our residents and to plan next steps, capital projects, and funding that supports flood mitigation.The last one took place in October 2016 when the Army Corps of Engineers presented information on the Jamaica Bay Reformulation Study.