The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has begun disconnecting illegal downspouts within Queens’ District 30 to reduce overload on the sewer system, leading to fears of homes flooding amongst residents who received letters in the mail alerting them to impending disconnections. However, a spokesperson for the DEP said that the goal of the new operation is to actually mitigate neighborhood flooding by ensuring that sewers don’t back up, with gutters and downspouts linking directly with the system.
On Oct. 30, the evening before Halloween, almost the entirety of New York City flooded when a storm brought record-breaking rainfall across every borough, causing damage to plenty of homes and businesses and leading to the deaths of two men who became trapped within basements. The increase in flooding around the city due to the changing climate has brought the need for more flood mitigation efforts, such as rain gardens, green space and modern infrastructure like the cloudburst technology.
