Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and local elected officials to distribute flood preparedness kits in East Elmhurst and educate residents about how they can protect themselves during flooding.
Mamdani joined Council Member Shekar Krishnan, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards to distribute the kits at the Lexington School for the Deaf in East Elmhurst Tuesday night.
The free kits provide residents with a flood barrier and a sump pump, which protects homes by automatically pumping accumulated ground water and surface runoff away from foundations. Residents also received a flood sensor alarm during Tuesday’s giveaway.
Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
Earlier, DEP held a town hall on flood preparedness at the Lexington School for the Deaf, providing local residents with information about how to keep themselves safe during flooding and about the city’s efforts to prevent persistent flooding. Council Member Tiffany Cabán and Assembly Members Steven Raga, Larinda Hooks and Jessica González-Rojas joined Krishnan and Richards for the town hall.
A DEP representative told residents that the city is working on infrastructure that will provide long-term solutions to persistent flooding in the city but acknowledged that residents need short-term solutions while that infrastructure is being built.
The agency represented described the city’s sewers as the first line of defense against flooding, adding that the sewers work over 98% of the time. However, on some occasions, like on May 20 when half an inch of rain fell in five minutes, the sewers are overwhelmed.
DEP representatives urged people to “think ahead of a storm” and have an exit strategy in place, particularly if they live in low-lying areas or in basement apartments.
“If you are a renter and you’ve got bars on your windows and your exits are high up, that’s the thing you need to think about,” an agency representative told residents. “What’s your exit plan? What’s your exit strategy?”
The DEP team in East Elmhurst.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
The DEP said it is also working to improve its catch basin cleaning program. With more than 150,000 basins located throughout the city, the agency says it does not have the manpower to oversee each basin.
“We have 150,000 catch basins, we do not have 150,000 DEP employees. So we got to figure out how are we cleaning these in a way that makes sense, and what are we doing for storms to make sure that they’re cleared,” a DEP representative said.
The DEP has developed a database for all catch basins, tracking how often each basin is blocked to identify problematic basins across the city. The agency is also seeking help from local residents clearing blocked basins.
“We really need help with catch basins,” the agency representative said. “I know a lot of people have the opinion of, ‘it’s the city and you guys should be doing this,’ but if we’re going to be real and figure out how we help ourselves – because we’re not going to get you know another 100,000 DEP employees to do this – we really need your help. We need your help clearing those catch basins.”
Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
Additional reporting by Ramy Mahmoud.