Queens City Council Member Phil Wong is furious and calling on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to make flood prevention a priority after constituents in his district experienced severe flooding and property damage last week and at least four times over the past month following intense storms.
Wong sent a strong letter on Aug. 23 to the mayor, who is still on a previously arranged summer vacation upstate, urging immediate action and a significant shift in City Hall spending priorities, arguing that residents should not have to repeatedly deal with flooded streets, damaged homes and ruined belongings after major storms.
“Twice this week alone, and at least four times in the last month, my constituents have watched their streets turn into lakes and water come into their homes,” Wong said in a statement. “While the mayor is on vacation, people are throwing out ruined belongings, drying out their basements and wondering when the next storm is going to flood them again.”
Wong criticized what he described as a more reactive approach to the recent flooding, saying the city should invest in infrastructure improvements rather than primarily responding after storms occur.
“We cannot keep treating every flood like a surprise and showing up afterward with sandbags and press conferences,” he said. “People need their government to actually fix the problem.”
During and after the city’s latest storm on Thursday, videos flooded social media showing cars and properties partly submerged in water, trees down and crushing vehicles or blocking streets and inaccessible roads and parkways in boroughs including Queens and Brooklyn.
In the weekend letter, Wong called on Mamdani’s team to redirect hundreds of millions of dollars toward the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and critical resiliency projects, specifically pointing to funding diverted from the Water Board and spending on new City Hall offices as potential sources for infrastructure investments.
Among the measures Wong called for are more frequent catch basin and sewer cleaning, additional drainage and retention infrastructure, assistance for homeowners with flood-prone private community drives, stronger oversight of utility work that eliminates green space or directs runoff toward homes, and a long-term expansion of the city’s sewer capacity.
The topic comes as city officials face continued pressure over the effects of heavy rainfall on vulnerable neighborhoods. Wong’s proposals would likely require significant investment and coordination among city agencies.
amNewYork contacted the mayor’s office to see if the mayor received the letter yet, whether he consider any or all of Wong’s proposals for flood prevention in Queens and whether City Hall has its own plan for flood mitigation in the area; the newspaper is awaiting a response at press time.
Meanwhile, City Hall announced in July that the Mamdani administration is spending $43.2 milion to expand the city’s coastal resilience bureau from six employees to roughly 75 as the city prepares to operate and maintain billions of dollars in new flood-protection infrastructure.