NYC Comptroller to Hurricane Ida flood victim homeowners: drop dead

PIX 11 News 

 New York City’s comptroller’s office shot down the thousands of people who filed financial claims against the city in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

Historic flooding from the drenching downpours destroyed the homes of many in 2021. In the aftermath, 4,703 people filed complaints with the city because of the flooding, as first reported by THE CITY. Each complaint was denied, a spokesperson for Comptroller Brad Lander’s office said. Letters went out to New Yorkers explaining that New York is not legally responsible.

“For over a century, courts have held that municipalities across the state of New York, including the City of New York, are not liable for damage from ‘extraordinary and excessive rainfalls,'” Lander wrote to New Yorkers in the denial letter. “Where damage is caused by negligent action or omission on the part of the City of New York, the City may be liable; however, that was not the case here.”

Ida dumped as many as 9 inches of rain in parts of New York City on the night of Sept. 1, 2021, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. In just one hour, 3.15 inches of rain fell in Central Park, breaking a record.

“As a result, the City of New York is not responsible for losses arising from Hurricane Ida, and your claim must be denied,” Lander wrote.

New Yorkers whose claims were denied can sue the city at any point within 1 year and 90 days of Ida, according to his office. That gives people until late November of 2022.

THE CITY 

Nearly a year after the remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded the Forest Hills one-bedroom apartment where Heidi Pashkow and her husband live, the couple is finally beginning to settle back into their first-floor home of over four decades. That’s after living with their son’s family for about nine months and spending almost $30,000 on repairs, Pashkow said.

She received a couple thousand dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and filed a negligence claim against the city for damage caused by sewer overflows in the storm, in the hopes of receiving some money.

Pashkow said she was “shocked” when she received a letter on Monday from City Comptroller Brad Lander completely denying her claim.

She wasn’t the only one: 4,703 New Yorkers filed claims against the city after their homes flooded during Ida. All 4,703 were denied, according to the comptroller’s office.

The crux of the claims is that the city’s negligence in sewer maintenance led to flooding damage.  

The storm killed at least 13 people in New York City on Sept. 1, 2021, as it dumped over three inches of rain in a single hour on Central Park, shattering previous rainfall records — and overwhelming the city’s sewer systems, which were built to handle rainfalls of under two inches an hour.

The comptroller’s office says it investigates each claim to determine whether city negligence led to the flooding. But the decisions rely on precedent set by a case from 1907 that ruled municipal governments are not liable for damage from “extraordinary and excessive rainfalls” — even if the city’s sewer system was under capacity.

“As a result, the City of New York is not responsible for losses arising from Hurricane Ida, and your claim must be denied,” read letters sent by the comptroller and obtained by THE CITY.

Pashkow said she thinks the city is “absolutely” at fault because it oversees the infrastructure.

“I could challenge it and say, ‘Well, if you had your sewer fixed, it wouldn’t be a problem,” Pashkow said. ​​

“No one is moving back on the first floor, only me and the super,” she said in a separate text message Tuesday. “All are paranoid and so am I when it rains.”

Ida flood homeowner victims are still getting shafted by Biden

Queens Post 

Nearly four months after the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed 13 New Yorkers, residents in the hardest-hit areas like Woodside are still struggling with government agencies for financial assistance to repair flood damage.

Many of the victims allege that the damage to their homes is the result of the city’s failure to fix the drainage and sewerage system. They cited decades-long calls for updates to the sewer system.

Linda Carlson, who has lived in her Woodside home since 1994, took on four feet of water when Ida struck on Sept. 1, with three inches of rain falling in just an hour. A contractor quoted her $34,000 in damages. “I was one of the lucky ones,” she said.

Carlson was approved for $11,773.68 in assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, more than what many of her neighbors were approved for, she said.

She was granted an additional $1,419.86 when she appealed the offer—and said others affected by Ida should also contest what’s offered. “Everybody should. This was caused by the city,” she said. “We’ve been fighting for decades to have the infrastructure upgraded.”

Danette Rivera nearly drowned in her Woodside home where she’s lived for 14 years. Her son, who is legally blind, had to pull her out of the basement through a small window as it filled with seven and a half feet of water, she said.

“I’m grateful that I’m a survivor. Not everyone has that story to tell,” she said. “But I’m angry, I’m upset and I’m pissed off. This shouldn’t have happened to me, and it shouldn’t have happened to anybody else. People shouldn’t have died.”

Rivera, who estimates that the cost to repair the damage to her home is about $64,000, also applied for assistance from FEMA, but would not say how much she was offered.

The amount she was approved for fell well short of the cost of the damage, she said.

Like Carlson, she appealed her offer, but received a letter asking for documentation she said had already been sent to the agency. “The appeal process seems like it’s a gimmick,” Rivera said. “Basically, it’s like a runaround.”

FEMA spokesman Scott Sanders told the Queens Post late last year that there could be a variety of reasons why someone might receive less funding than they had hoped. “If you gave me a thousand different applicants, there’s a thousand different stories in there,” he said.

Federal disaster funds, he said, are “not a substitute for insurance. It can supplement insurance, but it can’t duplicate assistance people may get from other sources.”

Majority Leader Senator Schumer has a lot of 'splaining to do also.

 

Here's the majority leader emphasizing that homeowners will be grants and all damages will be paid for.

If only these residents can sue the city for infrastructure negligence pic.twitter.com/WdaNLMFo89

— JQ LLC: Impunity Swagger (@ImpunityCity) September 7, 2021

City doing the homeless hotel shuffle with tenants displaced by Hurricane Ida

 THE CITY

Families flooded out of Queens homes by the record-breaking Ida rainstorm may soon be forced by the city to relocate from a Radisson hotel near Kennedy Airport and move a borough away.

The looming trip to one of two hotels in downtown Brooklyn could take place before Thanksgiving, the Ida evacuees say they’ve been told by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

“We just want more time,” Eileen Bendoyro, 52, said Tuesday after being informed she and her 13-year-old son Christopher would have to move to Brooklyn after staying at the South Jamaica Radisson since the epic Sept. 1 storm.

 Our activities are in Queens. We have small kids, babies, people who are disabled — to go to Brooklyn, it’s too far,” she said of the group still at the airport hotel.

Bendoyro’s basement apartment in East Elmhurst flooded, destroying nearly everything, she said. A week later, President Joe Biden and other elected officials visited the neighborhood, stopping at an alleyway around the corner from her apartment.

But the visit didn’t help her find a place to stay. She was among 20 families still at the hotel on Thursday when HPD told them they’d have to move by Monday, she said.

By Tuesday, just nine families remained, and they were then told by city officials they could get an extra five days at the Radisson. 

 An HPD spokesman said the city has provided emergency quarters to more than 380 families since the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit and is working to get people into permanent housing.

“We’ve secured extended stays in hotels in downtown Brooklyn for many of those who remain in our care, and will continue to work with the families staying at hotels in Queens to get them back on their feet,” the spokesman, Anthony Proia, said in a statement.

Woodside homeowner still having issues with FEMA emergency funding after phony consoling by the Blaz

NY Post 

A Hurricane Ida flooding victim that Mayor Bill de Blasio wrapped his arms around in an emotional scene last month called out Hizzoner on the radio Friday, saying the feds failed to deliver the aid he promised.

“You hugged me and told me that FEMA would take care of everything,” Woodside resident Julia Nieves told de Blasio during his weekly appearance on WNYC’s ‘Brian Lehrer Show’. “Unfortunately, FEMA didn’t give the [$36,000] to anyone in our Woodside homes.”

De Blasio had toured the damage along with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens/The Bronx) and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, following days of complaints from locals about City Hall’s lackadaisical preparation and sluggish response to the flooding.

The $36,000 referenced by Nieves is the maximum award available for homeowners through the U.S. government’s disaster relief program — but locals, including Nieves, say they’ve received just a fraction of that amount.

“I can’t replace the water heater, a boiler, replace all the walls,” she added. “You were in my basement and saw what happened to my walls! They had to remove everything because of the mildew and the smell was horrific.”

 Instead, the retiree said on the radio program that she’s been forced to refinance her home to come up with the $11,000 for her new water heater and boiler — and she still needs to buy a new refrigerator, washer and dryer.

“How does this work for everyone in the community of Woodside, Queens who [was] flooded by Ida,” she concluded plaintively — leaving de Blasio on the defensive and promising the city would intervene.

“Julia, look, we’ve got to get you more help, that’s the bottom line,” Hizzoner said. “I saw the destruction in your basement. It’s clearly a lot of money, we’ve got to get you back on your feet.” 

She should also go after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to find out why FEMA is dragging their feet.

 

 

Here's the majority leader emphasizing that homeowners will be grants and all damages will be paid for.

If only these residents can sue the city for infrastructure negligence pic.twitter.com/WdaNLMFo89

— This is JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) September 7, 2021

After the floods, home insurance premiums rise above sea level

THE CITY

 Premiums will be going up for most of the 53,000 New York City property owners covered by the federal flood insurance system, government stats reviewed by THE CITY show.

The National Flood Insurance Program rates that took effect Oct. 1 for new policyholders — and will hit in April for existing ones — have homeowners like Brooklyn’s Carly Baker-Rice facing new stress, on top of the toll of recent storms.

Baker-Rice and her husband bought their house in Red Hook last June in a move from Fort Greene, even though they predicted they’d eventually be “up to their knees in sewage” due to flooding in their new place, she said.

Just over a year into homeownership, that happened sooner than she thought. In August, Tropical Storm Henri flooded their basement and on Sept. 1, the deadly remnants of Hurricane Ida sent water splashing in through the front door.

Baker-Rice is still dealing with the damage and waiting for her insurance claims to go through — and she hasn’t been able to obtain a quote from her broker yet about how a new federal flood insurance policy might make her premium go up.

 “It makes my heart race, and I’m already somewhat crippled by the amount of stress that I’ve been under for the last month,” said Baker-Rice, 38, who works as a corporate training consultant. “It’s incredibly frightening to not know what it’s going to go up by, knowing what some of the existing rates out there are.”

Prices will go up for at least 62% of flood insurance policies in New York City. More than 53,000 properties, including 19,440 single-family homes, are insured by FEMA’s program in the five boroughs, an analysis by THE CITY found. Nationally, more homeowners will be taking bigger hits: FEMA estimates 75% will see increases, which could be as much as 18% per year.

In the city’s 10 poorest ZIP codes, 38% of premiums will increase and 62% will decrease. The figures are roughly the same for the city’s 10 wealthiest ZIP codes.

Due for an increase: about 75% of covered properties in Queens, 65% in Brooklyn, 59% in Staten Island, 46% in The Bronx and 43% in Manhattan.

 

The Blaz, suffering from Weather Forecast Derangement Syndrome, is spending over two and half billion dollars for the city's own meteorlogists

#WPC_MD 0925 affecting Northern Mid-Atlantic States into Southern New England, #mawx #riwx #ctwx #nywx #njwx #pawx #dewx #mdwx, https://t.co/8WorcCevs3 pic.twitter.com/kzYoSnKtke

— NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) September 1, 2021

 

 Patch

  Remnants of Hurricane Ida dealt New York City a sudden, costly lesson in the effects of climate change — and city officials don't want to be caught unaware again.

A city-penned new study — "The New Normal: Combatting Storm-Related Extreme Weather in New York City" — released Monday outlines $2.7 billion in steps to fight severe storms.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said many recommendations by the study's extreme weather task force, such as evacuation preparations and travel bans will go into effect, soon. Others, such as a $100 billion overhaul of the city's sewer system to accommodate previously unseen rainfall, will take longer and likely require federal help, he said.

"We know the climate crisis demands of us a lot of changes, a lot of new approaches," he said. "We also know it is manifesting as something that's shocking: more severe, more sudden. The type of weather that we've never seen before, literally in our lives — kind of stunning, brutal weather changes that have a horrible impact on our people."

Ida on Sept. 1 claimed 13 lives, broke a city record for the most rainfall in an hour and flooded streets, subways and basement apartments across the city.

De Blasio said the storm showed the need for the city to set up its own weather tracking and alert office. He said information currently provided by the National Weather Service, while appreciated, isn't specific enough for the city.

A new city-run weather system would be analogous to the NYPD's Counterterrorism Bureau set up after the Sept. 11 attacks — an added level of warning able to work more quickly for the city than federal agencies.

"So, my simple summary would be having a private forecasting capacity to just be that second set of eyes, just like you go to a second opinion with the doctor, to tell us if what we're seeing from the National Weather Service looks like the whole story, whether there's the possibility of things happening earlier, higher impact, what level of alert we should go to," he said. "Someone dedicated to thinking from the New York City perspective, not the whole nation perspective."

Ida homeowner victims getting desperate and organized

Three weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Ida unleashed torrential rains that wrecked portions of their homes, a group of Queens homeowners are accusing the city of failing to address decades-long complaints about flooding issues that have rendered their properties worthless.

On Tuesday, roughly 20 homeowners who live on three blocks in a low-lying section of Hollis assembled a protest in front of Queens Borough Hall. They argued that climate change, coupled with the marshy environment of southeast Queens, had created a massive infrastructure challenge that demands higher expertise in the form of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Even then, they conceded, their problems with flooding dates back decades and may ultimately not be solvable through even the best engineering fixes. In 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio committed nearly $2 billion in sewer improvements to alleviate flooding in southeast Queens. But many homeowners were skeptical of how long it would be before they felt the impact of those ongoing projects. One by one, they took turns telling horror stories of water damage they had suffered over the years. When it rains, neighbors collectively rush outside to clear the gutters. Most own their own sump pumps.

"If they can't fix it, buy out the homeowners. I don't think anybody would have a problem with that," said Amit Shivprasad, whose family owns a home on 183rd Street near 90th Avenue where two tenants, a woman and her son, drowned in the basement.

A buyout would not be unprecedented. In 2013, following Hurricane Sandy, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a program to buy out flood-prone homes, mostly in Staten Island. The state has gone on to spend $655 million in federal relief aid to buy more than 600 homes.

Shivprasad said part of the cost of owning homes vulnerable to flooding is the constant stress.

"You cannot go on a vacation. You cannot sleep at night when it rains. This is how sad it has become," he said.

Ida flood homeowner victims and basement tenants got shafted by Biden

 

 Gothamist

 President Joe Biden and a contingent of federal, state, and local officials toured flood-ravaged sections of Queens earlier this month in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ida, promising speedy relief to homeowners and renters. Impacted residents were told about the $32,000 maximum payout they could expect to receive to help them recover.

But two weeks later, many are realizing it's far less simple than they were promised.

Officials are now telling residents that funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency aren’t intended to cover all of the damage caused by Ida. Instead many residents are being directed to apply for low-interest loans they’ll eventually have to repay through the U.S. Small Business Administration to defray any costs FEMA won’t cover.

“What the f--k?” said Erika Kasouto, 41, when she was told to apply for a federal loan in one of several calls to FEMA agents. The Woodside home she lives in with her parents took in five feet of water on the ground level. “It’s ridiculous. It’s disheartening.”

Despite assurances from elected officials in the immediate aftermath of the flooding, FEMA representatives have since tried to clarify on their hotline, through email, and at the city’s disaster service centers set up after Ida that grant funding is only intended to cover the essential costs of someone staying in their damaged home.

Several residents from hard-hit areas like Woodside, East Elmhurst, and Hollis told WNYC/Gothamist about similar correspondence with FEMA. And federal officials confirmed as much, adding that homeowners would likely qualify for the maximum $32,000 payout if their home was destroyed. People can qualify for a loan and still receive a FEMA grant, officials said.

THE CITY

 Two weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Ida tore through the city, killing 13 people, basements across the city are still drying out as many New Yorkers struggle to recover from the punishing storm.

With millions of dollars in federal assistance now unlocked for the city, some households that saw rivers of rain and sewage pour in will have a lifeline to begin repairing and rebuilding.

But that help isn’t for everyone.

Left out of Federal Emergency Management Agency aid are undocumented immigrants — many of whom live in the Queens neighborhoods that were pummeled hardest.

“I’ve lived in this country for four years and this is the first time I’ve lived in a basement. I was looking for affordable housing,” Marlén Romero, a 32-year-old Corona resident, told THE CITY in Spanish.

Her home and belongings were drenched as Ida dumped more than seven inches of rain in an hour on parts of the city, flooding her apartment with about two feet of water.

“I had no idea that living in a basement would be so dangerous,” she said.

A native of Mexico, Romero and her husband are both undocumented, which would shut them out of federal disaster assistance. But her family may still qualify for assistance because the couple’s 4-year-old daughter is a U.S. citizen.

“It’s not fair for all of us who are undocumented who don’t have someone ‘legal’ in their households. We live in basements so we can save some money because rent in this city is so expensive. Our income doesn’t stretch that far to get a better home,” she said.

She only learned that there was financial aid available for flooding victims through a local community group, Familias Unidas, when a school social worker mentioned it as her daughter began preschool earlier this week.

 

Rat salad

 

Gothamist

Neal Phillip was biking through Canarsie Park on Saturday when something stopped him in his tracks: nearly a dozen bloated rat corpses, lying belly-up on a stretch of sand overlooking Jamaica Bay.

“When I saw the first one, I thought it was strange. Then I started seeing them all over the place,” recalled Philip, a professor of environmental science at Bronx Community College. “Seeing them dead like that wasn’t very pleasant.”

In recent days, similar displays of mass rodent death have appeared elsewhere in the five boroughs, a grim outcome of the floods brought by Tropical Storm Ida. Experts believe that hundreds of thousands of rats may have perished in the deluge, amounting to one of the largest vermin depopulation events in decades.

“With this particular storm, any rats that were in the sewers were either crushed by the current or were swept out into the rivers,” said Bobby Corrigan, a longtime pest control expert and former ​​rodentologist for the NYC Department of Health. “I can’t imagine they would’ve survived.”

While there are no reliable counts of New York City’s rats, estimates typically start in the many millions. A significant portion live in the subways and sewers, both of which were swiftly inundated during last week’s historic rainfall.

$24,000,000,000

 

 The Real Deal

Catastrophic flooding in the wake of Hurricane Ida caused up to tens of billions of dollars in damages to residential and commercial properties throughout the northeast last week, a new report estimates.

Losses throughout the region could range from $16 billion to $24 billion, according to a study released Wednesday by CoreLogic, with roughly 90 percent of the impact concentrated in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

“Given the prevalence of multifamily housing and below-ground structures in these areas, we’ll see more extreme interior content damages than we typically see in southern coastal areas,” said CoreLogic’s Shelly Yerkes. “For example, many of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in New York City buildings are in the basements, so contents damage should be substantial.”

Insured losses on residential and commercial buildings are estimated to be between $5 billion and $8 billion, while uninsured losses could be between $11 billion and $16 billion.

But the damage, particularly in New York City, could have been much worse had it not been for structural improvements made following severe flooding brought by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

President Biden doesn't know who the representative of East Elmhurst is

President Joe Biden came to Queens and he did not know who East Elmhurst's congressperson was.

When he realized it was @AOC he thanked her for representing the alley.

The other officials there didn't know it was her alley, er district either

Farcical pic.twitter.com/gk2M8SadM7

— This is JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) September 7, 2021

Sleepy Joe sends disaster relief funding to NYC

 

NY Post

President Biden on Monday approved New York’s major-disaster declaration, a move that will funnel federal relief dollars to local governments and homeowners ravaged by Hurricane Ida’s devastating flooding last week.

Gov. Kathy Hochul asked the White House for the declaration Sunday while noting that Ida’s financial hit to the state could involve “multi-multimillions” of dollars — up to $50 million. 

“I saw the devastation of New Yorkers who lost so much from this storm, and I pledged that we would do everything in our power to help them rebuild,” Hochul said in a statement Monday.

“I thank President Biden and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell for their swift approval of a Major Disaster Declaration, which provides a promise that we will build back better and stronger.

“I look forward to touring disaster areas with President Biden tomorrow and will continue to work with FEMA and our members of Congress to ensure New Yorkers get the relief they need from the devastating impacts of this horrible storm,” she said.

Biden will visit Queens on Tuesday to tour neighborhoods hit hard by the storm. At least 13 people died in New York City during Ida — nearly all after becoming trapped in basements in Queens and Brooklyn.

Current mayor and Senate Majority Leader attend impromptu West Indian Day parade for NYC's ruling class, then go to Woodside to survey flood damages to homes later on

NY Post
 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave Mayor Bill de Blasio a pass for failing to warn New Yorkers about the fatal storm that lashed the city last week — preferring to pin the blame on climate change — but her Queens constituents slammed Hizzoner and other city officials for their lack of preparedness.

“I don’t blame climate change, I blame the mayor,” Danette Rivera, 47, told The Post outside her Woodside home Monday morning after de Blasio, AOC, Sen. Charles Schumer and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell toured her block.

“There was absolutely no warning. I wasn’t expecting water from my own drain to be the one that’s going to kill me,” Rivera said, her voice shaking with emotion.

Rivera’s arms and stomach were still bruised from when her son had to yank her out through a basement window as it filled with water that bubbled up from her drains Wednesday night.

“This is a nightmare. A disaster,” Rivera said, noting that her home also flooded in 2008. She said city officials told her at the time that they’d make sure it never happened again.

“Fix the sewer system,” fumed Rivera’s neighbor, Julia Nieves, 77.

“The catch basins don’t get cleaned often enough. The last time I saw them cleaned was five years ago,” Nieves, a retired Off Track Betting clerk, told The Post from her Woodside basement where the paneling had been ripped off to reveal spots of black mold. 

 NY Post  

Mayor Bill de Blasio and a slew of local politicians marched in a scaled down, discreetly organized version of the West Indian Day Parade Monday — infuriating locals who thought the annual Labor Day blowout was scrapped entirely following Hizzoner’s announcement last week.

The parade kicked off at 9 a.m. in Crown Heights and lasted about an hour — featuring two floats with DJs pumping out music, dozens of dignitaries and more than 500 flag-toting marchers and colorfully dressed revelers.

Some parade perennials — like Terry Owens — were outraged that a smaller celebration of West Indian culture took place even after de Blasio nixed the parade altogether for the second straight year due to COVID-19 concerns.

“I am disappointed because I brought my family up here that wanted to see it. They came all the way from Alabama,” Owens, 59, griped, adding that he just happened upon the parade while out for a walk.

“It makes me angry, too, because they could have been out here. They are home sleeping,” Owens continued. “I come every year. I was talking about it and I wanted them to come see it. I said, ‘You all need to come,’ so I was looking forward to coming. I kept asking, I kept hearing, ‘No, it’s canceled, it’s canceled,’ so I am doing my morning walk and I saw it and I said, ‘Wow, it’s here.’”