New York will have to be prepared for more frequent heavy weather events due to climate change, Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday, Sept. 2, hours after the remnants of Hurricane Ida soaked the city and overwhelmed its infrastructure, breaking rainfall records previously set just a week ago.
“That says to me that there are no more cataclysmic unforeseeable events. We need to foresee these in advance and be prepared,” Hochul said at a press conference in Queens on Sept. 2.
The state’s chief executive said she wants to pivot efforts to prevent flooding from the coasts to the streets, where the downpour caused waist-height flooding in some parts of Brooklyn and Queens Wednesday night.
