President Joe Biden walked the streets of East Elmhurst lower than per week after flooding from Hurricane Ida in 2021 devasted the borough and killed 13 individuals throughout the town.
REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
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U.S. Congresswomen Grace Meng and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, together with Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer, introduced on Jan. 7 that President Joe Biden has signed their laws into regulation to deal with extreme flooding in Queens.
The measure goals to mitigate future disasters like these attributable to the remnants of Hurricane Ida in September 2021, which inundated the borough with record-shattering rainfall.
President Biden visited East Elmhurst lower than per week after the storm, which claimed 13 lives throughout New York Metropolis. The flooding devastated houses, companies, and infrastructure, leaving Queens among the many hardest-hit areas.
“Borough residents have not forgotten the devastation that Queens endured from Hurricane Ida and other heavy rainfall, and the threat of more floodwaters gushing down local streets and into homes and businesses will continue unless we act to protect our communities,” Meng stated. “Hurricane Ida killed several of my constituents and caused extensive damage to my congressional district, and I saw firsthand the devastating effect that the storm had on the area.”
Biden signed the laws as a part of the Water Assets Growth Act of 2024, a key invoice handed by Congress final month that funds water infrastructure tasks across the nation. In Queens, it authorizes the Military Corps of Engineers (ACE) — in working with New York Metropolis — to spend practically $190 million to reinforce and improve environmental infrastructure within the borough, similar to bettering water and wastewater infrastructure, stormwater administration, and mixed sewer overflows.
“Lives and property cannot be put at risk,” Meng stated. “Mitigating this type of dangerous and widespread flooding remains a top priority of mine, and I’m proud to keep up the fight for the upgrades that Queens needs and deserves.”
The invoice was enacted after lawmakers handed laws into regulation final 12 months, authorizing ACE to spend $120 million on related flood mitigation tasks in Queens.
“Year after year, families in Queens face the deadly consequences of outdated infrastructure when storms hit,” Ocasio-Cortez stated. “We saw the devastation of Hurricane Ida, which tragically took 13 lives, and we know that climate change is only going to make these risks worse. This will allow us to take this issue head-on and protect our beautiful community from extensive damage.”
She added that they negotiated a rise of practically $70 million extra to deal with the pressing drawback. Schumer famous that the additional funding was essential to fight future flooding in Queens just like the widespread inundation skilled throughout Hurricane Ida that brought on immense injury to roads, companies and houses.
“I’ve worked hard with Representatives Meng and Ocasio-Cortez to secure more critical federal support for the Army Corps of Engineers to develop ways to minimize flooding from heavy rain events and to upgrade the city’s water and sewer systems,” Schumer stated.
Sen. Kristen Gillibrand secured an extra $25 million for wastewater infrastructure and stormwater administration on Newtown Creek in western Queens. Photograph by Mark Hallum
New York’s junior senator introduced final month that she had secured $25 million for water and wastewater infrastructure, together with stormwater administration in Newtown Creek, below the Water Assets Growth Act. Senator Kristen Gillibrand says this consists of technical, planning, design help and/or development for wastewater therapy and associated amenities and water provide , storage, therapy and distribution amenities.
For generations, Newtown Creek has been one of the crucial polluted waterways in America,” Gillibrand stated. “While we have done so much to restore the health of the creek — including a Superfund site designation to hold polluters accountable — there is still so much to do.”
The three.8-mile-long physique of water empties into the East River and divides Lengthy Island Metropolis and Maspeth from Brooklyn. Up till the latter a part of the twentieth Century, industries alongside the banks of the creek dumped undesirable byproducts into its waters, together with a large underground oil spill. In newer years, remediation has introduced marine life again to the creek after President Obama designated it a Superfund website in 2010.
“I am proud to have fought for a $25 million authorization for water and wastewater infrastructure,” Gillibrand stated. “The critical funding would build on the work we have done to make our neighborhoods throughout northern Brooklyn and western Queens healthier places to live.”
