NEW YORK — Some Queens residents are fed up with flooding during storms that not only fills the streets but ends up inside their homes.
They packed a town hall Thursday night to talk about those concerns.
Last year, Hurricane Ida showed the worst of it, but the recent heavy rain caused even more trouble.
“What else am I supposed to do? How do I protect my family? I protect my asthmatic daughter and my life savings. Everything was just putting into my house,” one resident said.
“I’m getting water from around the block, it’s coming. My house has flooded five times since Ida,” another resident added.
A recent storm in September dumped more than two inches of rain in an hour and left streets across Queens under water.
One homeowner said flooding is costing her family tens of thousands of dollars. She fears her insurance policy could be dropped if she files a claim.
“My home has flooded numerous times. I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars on repairing the filth and the damage, and it just happened again,” said Jen Brazil.
City Council members and Congresswoman Grace Meng tried to reassure neighbors that solutions are being looked into, including additional funding from the federal goverment. The congresswoman said sought after money would be used to create better infrastructure to prevent the ongoing flooding issues.
“Republicans and Democrats, we brag about infrastructure money, but we want to make sure that we in Queens see that money. We are reminding the city and the state, and we’ve all written letters and talk to the city and state, that they’re putting together programs to help communities address climate change and infrastructure they have to remember us here in Queens, because we were disproportionately impacted from Hurricane Ida,” Meng said.
During the meeting, we learned legislation is being sought after to see if the federal government can help homeowners make their properties more storm resilient.
