New York City officials were unprepared for torrential rainfall last September that flooded roads, homes and schools, according to a new report from the city comptroller’s office, which found that poor communication, staff shortages and out-of-service equipment hampered the city’s response.
The report, released Monday by Comptroller Brad Lander, focused on how city agencies handled Tropical Storm Ophelia, which dumped 8.65 inches of rain in some parts of the city on September 29, 2023. At the storm’s peak, some parts of Brooklyn saw up to 3 inches of rain in an hour.
It was the wettest day in New York City since the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit in September 2021. It was also the wettest September day on record at John F. Kennedy Airport, surpassing the previous mark set by Hurricane Donna in 1960, according to the National Weather Service.
But despite promising to change the way it notifies and prepares for extreme weather, city officials still seemed surprised by the storm, Lander said.
“One thing that’s critical in making sure that you’re actually ready for storms when they hit and in strengthening public confidence is to do an investigation into how things went when it happened,” he said at a press conference Monday.
The biggest issue, Lander said, was that his team found that the majority of the trucks the city uses to clean catch basins of debris were out of service on the day of the storm, with just 19 of 51 operating.
The Department of Sanitation maintains the trucks on behalf of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
That made it harder for DEP to inspect the 964 catch basins (out of 153,000 total) identified for priority inspection – clearing fewer than half of them before the storm.
A mechanic shortage at DSNY caused the repair backlog, which only got worse as the year went on, the report found. The number of out-of-service trucks rose to 77% by the end of 2023, up from 63% at the time of the storm.
A spokesperson for the mayor, Liz Garcia, defended their administration’s response and noted that the comptroller’s report contained a “slew of inaccuracies.”
“Since the start of the administration, we have invested billions of dollars in climate infrastructure that has already started to save lives and prevent damage to properties — just take the Jewel Streets project, where the first phase of our $75 million flood management investment got this neighborhood dry in a few hours, as opposed to the weeks it took during Hurricane Ida,” she said in a statement.
“And in the face of Tropical Storm Ophelia — which brought more total rainfall than Ida in some parts of the city — our city agencies inspected over 900 catch basins, distributed thousands of flood barriers, rain barrels, and other protective tools, and got the word out to millions of New Yorkers two days ahead of the event.”
Catch basin cleaning is a multi-agency effort, she noted, adding that more than 900 catch basins prone to clogging were cleaned by other agencies like the Department of Transportation. And DEP as well as the Department of Citywide Administrative Services are prioritizing buying new trucks, she added.
The comptroller’s office also found deficiencies in the city’s notification system through the New York City Emergency Management department, or NYCEM.
The office activated an emergency flood plan at 8:30 a.m. the day before the storm, which let them coordinate with other agencies. But “this proactive approach was not as effectively extended to public communications,” the report said.
Lander’s team noted that the mayor’s first press conference on the storm was held at 11:40 a.m. on Sept. 29 – three hours after the storm began. The Department of Education first posted on social media at 12:35 p.m. the day of the storm, and updated its website on school dismissal at 2:30 p.m.
The New York City Housing Authority sent out robocalls at 4:45 p.m., nine hours after flooding began.
Most New Yorkers are not enrolled in the NotifyNYC alert systems for specific events; the report found, for example, that just 2.7% of New Yorkers over the age of 16 signed up for flash-flooding warnings.
The basement apartment notification list has just 2,378 subscribers, which is less than 1% of the estimated number of people living in these dwellings in the city, the report found. The report noted that these “residents are an especially hard-to-reach population because many basement apartments are not formally permitted, and many speak languages other than English.”
Garcia said the NotifyNYC alert system reaches more than a million New Yorkers, and the emergency management office worked with DEP to distribute 4,000 flood barriers, 7,500 rain barrels, 500 sump pumps, and 500 flood sensors to people in flood-prone neighborhoods last year.
Extreme Weather Coordinator MIA
Another issue identified in the report was over the “extreme weather coordinator,” a role originated by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in response to Hurricane Ida. On the day of the storm, that coordinator position was not filled, according to the report.
In the days following the storm, a spokesperson for the mayor said City Hall had appointed someone internally to take on the role — but refused to say who it was.
Lander said the Adams administration told their team last month that Camille Joseph Varlack, the mayor’s chief of staff, has been assigned the role, which includes coordinating with other agencies during a weather emergency and arranging run-throughs of various scenarios.
“Under this administration, our extreme weather coordinator has always reported to the chief of staff, and as we have continued to think about best practices around weather preparedness, that position has now shifted to Chief of Staff Joseph Varlack,” Garcia said in a statement, although she would not name who the previous “extreme weather coordinator” was.