N.Y. Gov. Hochul calls for better preparedness for extreme weather events

During a briefing on storm damage from the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said due to the frequency of extreme weather events, they can no longer be considered unforeseeable. “We need to see these in advance and be prepared,” Hochul said.

Video Transcript

KATHY HOCHUL: And this is all precipitated by last night's record-shattering rainfall. And what's so fascinating is that the records that were broken in Central Park, for example, 3.15 inches in one hour, it broke a record literally set one week earlier. That says to me that there are no more cataclysmic, unforeseeable events. We need to foresee these in advance and be prepared.

And we learned a lot of lessons from Sandy. We built back resiliency. Our coastal shorelines are in much better shape than they had been. But where we have a vulnerability is in our streets. With the higher elevations now where the flash floods-- which were unknown before. This is the first time we've had a flash flood event of this proportion in the city of New York and in the outlying areas.

We haven't experienced this before, but we should expect it the next time. And that means we have to continue investments and infrastructure, working in partnership with our federal government and support from Senator Schumer and President Biden who are working so hard to get the infrastructure back to our states, so we build this up working in partnership with the mayor and other officials to work collaboratively and get this done, so we can take care of the drainage shortcomings in our streets.

Because when the streets get flooded, what happens next? The water rushes down, not just through the highways but also finds its way to penetrate our subway system. And as a result, what happened yesterday? Trains were shut down, people were stranded. The fear that they must have experienced when this occurred, I cannot imagine and I don't want this to happen again.