New York City can't agree on how to fight flooding

Record ID: 1736840

  • Title: New York City can't agree on how to fight flooding
  • Date: 7th August 2023
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 31, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CLIMATE SCHOOL, CLIMATE SCIENTIST, ANDREW KRUCZKIEWICZ, SAYING, GESTURING ACROSS EAST RIVER: “In Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Queens, and then also on the lower west side of Manhattan along the Hudson River, what's proposed are approximately 12-to-20 foot high seawalls. So this will change our experience with waterways, with the coastal areas of New York City, areas that have really brought the city together, for New Yorkers and also millions of visitors as well.” PEOPLE RELAXING UNDER UMBRELLAS ON NEW YORK CITY WATERFRONT NEW YORK CITY FERRY EAST RIVER, QUEENSBOROUGH BRIDGE NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (RECENT - JULY 26, 2023) (REUTERS) RIVERKEEPER, PRESIDENT AND HUDSON RIVERKEEPER, TRACY BROWN, STANDING BY HUDSON RIVER (SOUNDBITE) (English) RIVERKEEPER, PRESIDENT AND HUDSON RIVERKEEPER, TRACY BROWN, SAYING: “One of the biggest problems with the plan is that it started out with too narrow a focus. So, when the Corps does a project, they can do a single hazard project or a multi-hazard project. And they started this project as a single hazard only looking at storm surge impacts. So that's the 100-year storm, mass of water coming off the ocean, breaking into our landscape and flooding our communities. What it needs to be is a multi-hazard plan, because in addition to having storm surges, we have these heavy rain events where we are seeing loss of life and incredible damage to property. We have sea level rise creating monthly flooding in more and more communities now. We have groundwater inundation from that sea level rising and the buried rivers and waterways in our communities. So, if we don't start with the multi-hazard approach and say this is what we're going to address, we're just going to end up with a hammer that hits one nail, and we have many nails and many challenges.”
  • Embargoed: 21st August 2023 13:57
  • Keywords: Hurricane Sandy New York City U.S. Army Corps of Engineers climate change flooding heat storm surge weather
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Environment,North America,Weather
  • Reuters ID: LVA003890921072023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS NOTE: THIS STORY IS PART OF A MINI VIDEO SERIES ON WEATHER/CLIMATE
    PART AUDIO QUALITY AS INCOMING
    More than a decade after Hurricane Sandy devastated the tri-state area of the United States, the question of how to best protect the New York and New Jersey harbor from flooding is still under debate.
    At the heart of the matter is a long-awaited draft storm surge plan for the New York New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released in September 2022. With a price tag of $52.6 billion, it is the largest, most expensive plan in the Corps’ history. But not everyone agrees it’s the right solution for the Big Apple’s climate woes.
    The proposal envisions 12 movable gates, or storm surge barriers, across entrances to waterways, along with dozens of miles of floodwalls, berms and levees along the shoreline. The floodwalls, in parts of Queens, Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, would rise 12 to 20 feet, dramatically transforming New Yorkers’ experience with the city's waterways.
    The plan, which will be 65% federally funded and 35% funded by the states of New York and New Jersey, was supposed to go to Congress for approval in July, but that’s been delayed.
    A broad coalition of community residents, activists, environmentalists, scientists and others is urging the U.S. Army Corps to revamp the proposal. It wants the Corps to give greater consideration to environmental justice, prioritize natural and nature-based solutions to flooding, and address multiple climate hazards.
    Groups like the nonprofit environmental organization Riverkeeper say the current proposal places too narrow a focus on storm surge, while ignoring dangers posed by flash flooding and sea level rise, and threatens ecological harm. It’s calling on the Governors of New York and New Jersey, who have the authority to reject the current plan, to get involved and amend it.
    Last month catastrophic flooding caused by torrential downpours devastated parts of New York State. Meanwhile record-breaking temperatures are hitting multiple cities this summer, and July 2023 was set to be the hottest month on record, according to the U.N. World Meteorological Organization.
    Regardless of how the plan develops, New York City is likely only to experience more extreme weather events in the coming months and years.
    (Production: Andrew Hofstetter, Christine Kiernan, Joan Soley)
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