NYC Adds 2,000 Rain Gardens, Installs Flood Sensors to Better Protect Residents: One Year After Hurricane Ida

By Yehudit Garmaise

A year after Hurricane Ida took the lives of 13 New Yorkers and wrought havoc on the city’s infrastructure, Mayor Adams announced that he will install 2,000 more “rain gardens” to better absorb heavy rains that overwhelm the city’s sewer system.

The city already features 9,000 rain gardens, which can each absorb up to 2,500 gallons of water, to compensate for the non-absorbent, hard surfaces of NYC’s urban jungle that get easily overwhelmed and flooded by downpours, cbsnews reported.

The mayor, who held a moment of silence for the 13 people who died during last year’s late summer storm, added that in the next five years, the city will spend tens of thousands of dollars to install 500 new flood net sensors and many other infrastructure improvements to better protect residents from flooding.

Resembling surveillance cameras, the flood sensors can sense flooding and report information in real time to both officials and to the public.

The high-tech sensors can also alert residents to seek higher ground and tell city officials which roads need to close during storms. 

"Thirteen New Yorkers died in their basement apartments due to flooding,” said Mayor Adams, who blamed the heavy rains on climate change. "Ida was not from coastal areas.

“We thought we could build higher walls, but Mother Nature showed us it was more than just higher sea levels. This came from rain: inwards." 

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said that the city not only needs thousands more rain gardens, but NYC needs “miles upon miles of new sewer and water mains.”

Photo credit: Flickr