{"id":296717,"date":"2026-07-15T16:21:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296717\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T16:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:21:30","slug":"mamdani-distributes-flood-preparedness-kits-alongside-dep-in-east-elmhurst-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296717\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani distributes flood preparedness kits alongside DEP in East Elmhurst \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)<\/a> and local elected officials to distribute flood preparedness kits in East Elmhurst<\/a> and educate residents about how they can protect themselves during flooding.<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

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\u2019s giveaway.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

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\u2019s efforts to prevent persistent flooding. Council Member Tiffany Cab\u00e1n and Assembly Members Steven Raga, Larinda Hooks and Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas joined Krishnan and Richards for the town hall.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The agency represented described the city\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

DEP representatives urged people to \u201cthink ahead of a storm\u201d and have an exit strategy in place, particularly if they live in low-lying areas or in basement apartments.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are a renter and you\u2019ve got bars on your windows and your exits\u00a0are high up, that\u2019s the thing you need to think about,\u201d an agency representative told residents. \u201cWhat\u2019s your exit plan? What\u2019s your exit strategy?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe DEP team in East Elmhurst.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019re cleared,\u201d a DEP representative said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really need help\u00a0with catch basins,\u201d the agency representative said. \u201cI know a lot of people have the opinion of, \u2018it\u2019s the city and you guys should be doing this,\u2019\u00a0but if we\u2019re going to be real and\u00a0figure out how we help ourselves \u2013\u00a0because we\u2019re not going to get you know another 100,000 DEP employees to do this \u2013\u00a0we really need your help. We need your help clearing those catch basins.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Ramy Mahmoud.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and local elected officials to distribute flood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[112993,32451,14236,112994,22925,9,24,63,122,7919,124,123,22910],"class_list":["post-296717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-city-department-of-environmental-protection","tag-dep","tag-flooding","tag-lexington-school-for-the-deaf","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-borough-president-donovan-richards","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-shekar-krishnan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296717","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=296717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}