October 29, 2024
Twelve years ago Supersorm Sandy left a massive trail of devastation stretching from the Caribbean to New England. Here in NYC we experienced flooded subways and a weeks-long blackout downtown. Up here the Soccer Field was inundated and the damaged Nature Center was closed for more than a decade. More than 40 New Yorkers perished in that extreme weather event and there were billions of dollars of property damage.
Are we better prepared for an extreme weather event in 2024 than we were in 2012? Two years ago, on the Superstorm’s 10th Anniversary, this is how Mayor Adams answered:
“Sandy wasn’t just a storm; it was a warning. Another storm could hit our city at any time and that is why our administration is doing everything we can to prepare and protect New Yorkers. We have embarked on the some of the largest urban climate adaptation projects in the county, with initiatives like the Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Coastal Resilience project and Climate Strong Communities. New York City’s infrastructure projects are more complex, novel, and unparalleled compared to any other American city, but many remain in various stages of completion, and we need our partners in the federal government to help provide us with regular and reliable resiliency funding of approximately $8.5 billion. We must continue to act quickly to bolster our defenses, prevent damage, and save lives.”
The Nature Center reopened this year.