New York City has only spent 54% of the $14.7 billion in already-approved U.S. funds for recovery and storm-protection following 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, according to city Comptroller Scott Stringer.
The unspent money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development could be used to protect public housing and hospitals and fund large-scale engineering proposals to safeguard low-lying vulnerable neighborhoods such as Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay and Breezy Point, according to a report issued Thursday.
“Six years after Sandy hit, we still haven’t fully recovered and many of the city’s homes, businesses, schools and hospitals remain dangerously exposed to the next storm,” said Stringer, who’s been fundraising toward a possible 2021 mayoral candidacy. “Safeguarding our shorefront is not a priority we can kick down the road.”
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Office of Resiliency would respond to the report after reviewing it, spokesman Seth Stein said.
In March, de Blasio announced a $10 billion plan to push out the lower Manhattan coastline as much as 500 feet, or two city blocks, to protect billions of dollars of property. Sea barrier boardwalks have been built in the Rockaways in southern Queens, and other measures are underway in Staten Island, the mayor’s Office of Resiliency has said.
The city has about 500 miles of vulnerable coastline, in which about $102 billion worth of property is situated, according to Stringer’s report. The National Academy of Science predicts that by 2030, rising sea levels could place these areas at risk to Sandy-like storms once every five years.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.