{"id":215991,"date":"2026-04-30T22:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/215991\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:06:09","slug":"city-plans-95m-flood-protection-project-in-homecrest-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/215991\/","title":{"rendered":"City plans $95M flood protection project in Homecrest \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"cloudburst\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The city is planning a $95M Cloudburst flood protection system in Homecrest. <\/p>\n

Image courtesy of NYC DEP<\/p>\n

In their efforts to protect New York City\u2019s most vulnerable neighborhoods from flooding, officials are turning their attention to Homecrest.\n<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday announced a $95 million \u201ccloudburst\u201d project in the neighborhood, with infrastructure like porous pavement and underground water storage tanks to slow rainwater and reduce strain on the sewer system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cloudbursts are sudden, intense rainstorms that dump up to two inches of rain an hour, more than the city\u2019s sewers can handle. Those storms \u2014 which are becoming more frequent and more intense, thanks to climate change \u2014 often cause dangerous<\/a> and damaging<\/a> flooding, especially in low-lying and coastal neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"rainCloudbursts are particularly damaginf for low-lying coastal neighborhoods. File photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Cloudburst program<\/a>, launched in 2023, uses a combination of \u201cgreen\u201d and \u201cgray\u201d infrastructure, like rain gardens and catch basins, to capture floodwater and keep it from overwhelming sewers and streets.<\/p>\n

Officials said the Homecrest project will focus on several \u201chotspots\u201d between Avenues O and U and East 9th and East 19th streets. Some locations, like Avenue P between East 16th and East 17th streets, are prone to \u201cnuisance\u201d flooding, with waters rising between 4 inches and 1 foot. Other spots, like the intersection of Avenue U and East 16th Street, suffer more frequently with \u201cdeep and contiguous flooding\u201d of a foot or more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, every time a major storm rolls through, families throughout southern Brooklyn have watched their streets turn into rivers \u2014 and every year it\u2019s happening more and more due to climate change. We\u2019ve dealt with flooded basements, damaged cars and roads that become impassable,\u201d said state Sen. Sam Sutton, in a statement. \u201cThis $95 million investment in infrastructure is exactly the kind of serious, long-term commitment our communities need.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though design has not been finalized, the Department of Environmental Protection is expected to install porous pavement<\/a> on city streets and underground storage tanks beneath publicly-owned land like schoolyards and parking lots. DEP will work with the parks department, Department of Transportation, and NYC Public Schools to identify good locations for those tanks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"homecrestThe Homecrest Cloudburst project will target flood-prone streets and intersections in the nabe. Image courtesy of NYC DEP<\/p>\n

A smaller Cloudburst project at South Jamaica Houses in Queens includes large water storage tanks underneath a basketball court<\/a>. The tanks store massive amounts of water during storms, then allow the water to slowly disperse into the soil afterward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials said the project will also help to protect the already-polluted Coney Island Creek from being inundated with untreated sewage during storms.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Homecrest Cloudburst project is a major step forward in protecting this community from the kind of extreme rainfall we know is becoming more common,\u201d said DEP Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia. \u201cBy capturing and storing stormwater before it overwhelms local streets and sewers, we\u2019re reducing flood risk, improving water quality in Coney Island Creek and building the resilient infrastructure New Yorkers deserve.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city is planning a $95M Cloudburst flood protection system in Homecrest. Image courtesy of NYC DEP In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,85208,55411,9,24,12,370,63],"class_list":["post-215991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-cloudburst","tag-homecrest","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}