President Biden late Sunday approved an emergency declaration for New York state, freeing up federal disaster assistance to help people recover from last week’s devastating storms and flash flooding.
Hardest hit was Suffolk County’s north shore, where floods displaced hundreds of people from their homes in the middle of the night and washed out a road in Stony Brook. Smithtown and Brookhaven were also damaged.
On Sunday, Gov. Hochul’s office said the storms led to multiple rescues from raging waters and the failure of a dam — and prompted the National Weather Service to declare Suffolk County’s first-ever flash flood emergency. Hochul called it a “1-in-1,000-year rain event.”
More than 2,000 residents and business owners were damaged, and Commack and East Setauket saw “multiple sinkholes” in addition to downed trees and more than 70 structures that suffered major damage or were destroyed, Hochul’s statement said.
The governor on Friday had declared a state of emergency for the affected region and requested federal aid after a record 9.4 inches of rain fell in Western Suffolk County overnight last Monday into Tuesday. Senators joined Hochul in calling for federal aid.
“When you have a tragedy like this and roadways are gone, we can get the Army Corps of Engineers to come here so this way we can get this reconstructed so we can get everybody back to normal again,” Senator Mario Mattera told ABC News.
Biden’s declaration authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety and to lessen or avert the threat of catastrophe.”
The governor praised the move.
“I commend the hardworking damage assessment teams on the ground who provided information to secure this important federal disaster assistance,” she said. “I thank President Biden and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell for their continued support in helping Suffolk County residents get the assistance they need.”