STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN GREGORY W. MEEKS SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS HEARING, “SANDY AND ITS IMPACTS: A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE”
STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN GREGORY W. MEEKS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
HEARING, “SANDY AND ITS IMPACTS: A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE”
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Hurricane Sandy’s 13 to 15 foot tidal surge and 75 mile an hour winds ravaged a significant portion of my current district and the newly formed 5th Congressional District that I will represent in the 113th Congress. Damage from the super-storm struck from the Rockaway Peninsula and the south and southeastern mainland of Queens County to a number of towns and villages in Nassau County on Long Island.
Sandy’s wide path of destruction cut across these areas without regard to race, class, or religion, inflicting heavy damage on churches, synagogues, and temples, retail businesses, factories, restaurants, homes, government offices, parks and playgrounds. What we have left is a human, housing, infrastructure, and environmental crisis that must be addressed expeditiously. Resources and time are precious in this endeavor to recover.
Federal assistance has been extensive. The efforts of NYS government and NYC government are commendable. Cooperation between federal, state, and city agencies grows by the day. FEMA and the SBA in particular are partnering with state and municipal agencies as well as religious institutions, non-profits, community-based organizations, and business associations. Volunteers from across the city and around the country have been extremely helpful. The resiliency of homeowners and business owners is extraordinary.
Despite these valiant efforts, a wide gap between effort and needs remains. The bottom line is that we are just in the foothills of the mountain we have to climb. The further we go in the rebuilding process the more crucial the federal government’s role becomes. Days ago Governor Cuomo requested $41 billion in federal aid. This figure includes reimbursing New York State and New York City for their respective disaster relief expenditures. About a fourth of the Governor’s request relates to “retrofitting” New York’s infrastructure against future super storms.
Dozens of power grids that were damaged by salt water have to be replaced. Sewage treatment facilities must be rebuilt in light of the level of the storm surge Sandy generated. But, according to what standard? Hundreds of tons of debris have to be permanently removed. But to where? Then there are questions going forward of how to rebuild and protect the infrastructure, businesses, housing stock, and transportation system in the Rockaways and in south and southeast Queens.
As tragic as this crisis is, it also presents New York and the country with an opportunity to do some things that have been in motion or under consideration for many years:
▪ The Army Corps of Engineers is close to completing a study on ways of protecting the integrity of the Rockaway Peninsula’s coastline. It is to include recommendations on whether or not to build jetties to keep the sand from washing away and the ocean at bay in rough weather.
▪ Sandy proved that the existing subway system may not be viable in the aftermath of a super storm and that a ferry service from the Rockaways to other parts of New York City would enable Peninsula residents to avert the extreme isolation that occurred this time.
▪ Sandy also underscored the need to ensure that vulnerable shoreline communities have a state-of-the-art medical facility that can withstand flooding and the loss of power, and has contingencies for large-scale evacuation if necessary.
▪ If we have indeed entered an era of super-storms, it should not rest on New York State or New York City government alone to bear the cost and burden of tackling questions related protecting the region’s economy, infrastructure, cultural assets, housing stock, and above all, population from such extraordinary natural disasters. Whether additional sea walls, the heightening of existing sea walls, or sea gates is ultimately undertaken will involve public works on an unprecedented scale perhaps requiring an unprecedented degree of difficulty — hence federal participation.
▪ A federally coordinated dialogue involving the best minds, the most substantiated research, and the most extensive practical experience on the part of all levels and branches of government as well as academia and the private sector on the implications of super-storms is also needed. Such a project should chronicle the best responses to date as well as the components of a super-storm survival model that states and localities in severe weather zones may wish to employ.