After remnants of Hurricane Ida wrought deadly havoc across New York in 2021, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio released a plan detailing a set of steps the city should take to keep residents safe during future extreme weather emergencies.
But the recommended actions contained in the de Blasio-era blueprint were nowhere to be seen when the forceful last gusts from remnants of Hurricane Ophelia slammed into the city this past Friday and dumped so much rain within a few hours that it submerged entire blocks, snarled transit systems and flooded New Yorkers’ homes.
The de Blasio document, entitled “The New Normal,” vowed that the city would “plan for the worst-case scenario in every instance” when forecasts indicated a high probability of flash floods.
Such planning should include the mayor “preemptively” declaring a state of emergency and issuing a “mandatory evacuation of basement apartments” at least six hours before a storm’s arrival, the de Blasio plan states. Citywide travel bans should also be implemented before a forecasted flash flood hits, and all such actions should be spearheaded by an “Extreme Weather Coordinator,” a new senior City Hall position, according to the former mayor’s strategy document.
Mayor Adams did not follow most of those recommendations before Friday’s catastrophic deluge even though the National Weather Service provided warnings of the seriousness of the storm more than 24 hours before it made landfall.
Eric Adams Bill de Blasio
Adams’ administration hasn’t made a public announcement about hiring a person for the extreme weather coordinator post called for by de Blasio. An Adams spokeswoman said the administration has tasked a person with that role, but would not say who it is.
No preemptive travel bans, evacuation orders or states of emergency were declared by Adams, either.
The day before Ophelia’s wrath swept over the city, Adams didn’t deliver any public remarks or issue any statement about the looming weather emergency, and he spent the evening at a fundraiser for his reelection campaign themed for his Sept. 1 birthday.
It took his office until 11:08 p.m. Thursday — less than three hours before the floods started — to issue an extensive advisory urging New Yorkers to stay home and avoid driving, apparently not reaching dozens of New Yorkers who ended up stuck in their cars on the inundated FDR Drive, Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Major Deegan Expressway.
“If you are home, stay home, if you are at work, shelter in place for now,” the mayor said at a press conference at City Hall around noon Friday, at which point the worst of the storm had already passed.
At that press conference, his first public remarks on the storm, the mayor declared a state of emergency.
Adams’ spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment on why the administration disregarded the recommendations from the “New Normal” report.
Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, a progressive Democrat who sits on the Council’s Environmental Protection, Resiliency and Waterfronts Committee, said the most important aspects of the de Blasio-era report was the push for “aggressive and early communication” from the city during weather emergencies.
“The Adams administration did neither, and it was painfully obvious for every New Yorker who got stuck in the floods on Friday,” Restler said. “It doesn’t feel like this administration has taken emergency preparation seriously in general.”
Mayor Adams didn’t heed de Blasio-era NYC storm protocols before crippling flash floods
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