Three weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Ida unleashed torrential rains that wrecked portions of their homes, a group of Queens homeowners are accusing the city of failing to address decades-long complaints about flooding issues that have rendered their properties worthless.
On Tuesday, roughly 20 homeowners who live on three blocks in a low-lying section of Hollis assembled a protest in front of Queens Borough Hall. They argued that climate change, coupled with the marshy environment of southeast Queens, had created a massive infrastructure challenge that demands higher expertise in the form of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Even then, they conceded, their problems with flooding dates back decades and may ultimately not be solvable through even the best engineering fixes. In 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio committed nearly $2 billion in sewer improvements to alleviate flooding in southeast Queens. But many homeowners were skeptical of how long it would be before they felt the impact of those ongoing projects. One by one, they took turns telling horror stories of water damage they had suffered over the years. When it rains, neighbors collectively rush outside to clear the gutters. Most own their own sump pumps.
"If they can't fix it, buy out the homeowners. I don't think anybody would have a problem with that," said Amit Shivprasad, whose family owns a home on 183rd Street near 90th Avenue where two tenants, a woman and her son, drowned in the basement.
A buyout would not be unprecedented. In 2013, following Hurricane Sandy, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a program to buy out flood-prone homes, mostly in Staten Island. The state has gone on to spend $655 million in federal relief aid to buy more than 600 homes.
Shivprasad said part of the cost of owning homes vulnerable to flooding is the constant stress.
"You cannot go on a vacation. You cannot sleep at night when it rains. This is how sad it has become," he said.
The September 1st storm produced record amounts of rainfall that wound up killing 13 New York City residents, 11 of whom resided in basements. Tens of thousands of homes were left damaged. In the wake of the disaster, President Biden approved New York and New Jersey for federal disaster relief. City and state officials have pledged to help residents apply for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but many homeowners are learning that the awarding of government funds is more complicated and limited than they had imagined.
Asked about the residents' complaints that they were being forgotten, Mayor de Blasio on Tuesday said that city canvassers had knocked on tens of thousands of doors and that his office would aid any resident that needed help.
He said FEMA had already received 31,000 applications from city residents.
"Those checks are already starting to move," de Blasio said, at a press briefing earlier in the day, also at Queens Borough Hall.
The mayor has said that the city would address the impact of climate change by issuing a set of new practices that would include travel bans and basement evacuations. The full recommendations by a city task force is set to be released on Monday, de Blasio said.
The rally by the homeowners comes amid Climate Week, a time in which Mayor de Blasio is looking to showcase his administration's efforts on addressing climate change and sustainability, and as he happens to be highlighting projects in Queens as part of a tour of the five boroughs.
Hours earlier, the mayor announced the finalization of an agreement that would bring in renewable power sources from upstate New York and Canada. His administration has committed to powering government buildings and most vehicles with renewable energy by 2025, an action that he said would be equivalent to moving 1 million cars off the road.
"This is a transformative moment," de Blasio said.
Among those who joined the protest were several south Jamaica homeowners who bore damage from a different kind of flooding—that of raw sewage—in 2019. The city initially blamed the flooding and contamination of 127 homes on cooking grease that had been poured down a drain, but later determined that the cause was a broken pipe that left the city to blame.
The incident confirmed the longstanding belief of many residents, most of whom are people of color, that the city has failed to maintain and upgrade the area's infrastructure.
Aracelia Cook, a 63-year-old lifelong Queens resident, is among the homeowners who have been fighting with the city to pay damages.
She said following the recent flooding from Ida she walked over to the affected neighborhoods and began talking to residents. That led to conversations about organizing.
"We're doing bigger things than this," she said. "This is just the beginning."
