Mayor Adams Expands Work to Prevent Flooding During Intense Rainfall

By Yehudit Garmaise

To prevent citywide flooding during intense rainfalls, Mayor Eric Adams is expanding the city’s “Cloudburst Program,” to four new, carefully chosen neighborhoods.

Using $390 million that comes from city and federal funds, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and other agencies will develop innovative methods to absorb, store, and transfer stormwater brought by sudden, heavy downpours of rain, Mayor Adams announced on Monday.

While the DEP first protected the flood-prone communities of South Jamaica and St. Albans, Queens and East Harlem, Manhattan, now Corona and Kissena Park in Queens; Parkchester in the Bronx; and East New York in Brooklyn, are the next neighborhoods to receive the bolstered infrastructure that will help heavy rain to better drain from the streets.

When BoroPark24 reached out to the mayor’s office to inquire as to whether the DEP had any plans to expand its “Cloudburst Program,” to Boro Park, which often floods dramatically, Charles Lutvack, the mayor’s deputy press secretary, was not sure.

“Inner Brooklyn could potentially see some [building] conversions,” said Lutvack, who did not specify which neighborhoods he considered to stand in what he called, “Inner Brooklyn.” 

Brownsville, Brooklyn, is another neighborhood for which the city is planning flood prevention infrastructure projects, and the agencies are continuing to evaluate more than two dozen additional locations for inclusion in the Cloudburst Program. 

The DEP will continue to apply “aggressively,” the mayor said, for additional federal funding to continue to expand the Cloudburst program.  

The mayor’s office said that it is choosing neighborhoods on which to focus its Cloudburst Program by “examining historic and future stormwater flooding hotspots and social factors that may increase vulnerability to stormwater flooding.”

“Four months ago, DEP Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala and I announced our plans for rainfall management, to protect our city and prevent future tragedies like what we saw during Hurricane Ida,” said Mayor Adams. “This nearly $400 million investment in stormwater management projects cement New York City’s status as a national and global leader in green infrastructure and shows our commitment to protecting New Yorkers from disastrous floods.”