Saturday 29 October marked ten years since Hurricane Sandy devastated various parts of the Big Apple, leaving 44 dead and thousands homeless, and an estimated $19,000 millions in damage. And as a prelude to the sad anniversary of the tragedy, the State Comptroller’s Office has just presented a report, in which it warns that New York City is not prepared to respond to similar natural disasters.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s report, submitted following an audit of the New York City Office of Emergency Management (NYCEM), highlighted that there is “poor oversight and poor management of hazard mitigation efforts, operational continuity plans and evacuation plans”.
The official mentioned that it is urgent that the City of New York prepare itself to be able to provide a better management of eventual catastrophes, which cannot be ruled out.
“It is not a question of if, but when another massive storm as Sandy will hit New York City, potentially crippling its infrastructure and endangering lives,” DiNapoli said. “The City needs to be ready, but the inadequate coordination and limited centralized oversight of the City’s disaster preparedness is of great concern.”
DiNapoli called on the City’s Emergency Management office. the City (responsible for coordinating emergency planning) to take into account the considerations of the audit, in order to take measures and adopt actions to avoid unnecessary damage that may be preventable.
And it is that despite the fact that the Office of Emergency Management has developed long-term strategies, such as the Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) of the 2019, which is in force for five years, and that according to the State Comptroller has 755 hazard mitigation actions, they present serious concerns.
The DiNapoli Office found that “412 of those mitigation actions, which are equivalent to 55% of the plan, they had no faith completion tokens, so it’s not clear if the job was completed; and no they had start dates, so it is not clear if the work had started”.
Furthermore, the audit findings revealed that 281 Office of Emergency Management mitigation actions did not have a cost estimate.
“When the auditors compared the HMP data for 10 projects with the documentation provided by the agencies, found significant differences in cost estimates, start dates and completion dates. A City agency’s estimated cost to protect critical electrical systems exceeded the reported HMP’s estimated cost by $737 million. A stormwater drainage plan was included in the HMP at a cost of $360 million, but the agency said its cost was $ 582, 9 million”, warned the report.
The authorship also found flaws in project compliance, which it highlighted as worrying.
“About an action of mitigation on accessibility to evacuation centers, the end date was set at 15 April 2019, but still not completed more than three years later. Another one for interim flood protection measures was expected to be completed by 30 June 2021, however, the project was still ongoing more than a year later”, the report highlighted.
The document concluded by setting off alarm bells, since it warns that inaccuracies in the City’s HMP and lack of oversight by the NYCEM office “reduce the agency’s awareness of whether or not the City’s disaster preparedness is progressing.
Assemblyman Khaleel M. Anderson, from one of the areas hardest hit by Sandy, asked NYCEM to review the concerns of the State Comptroller and develop a better logistics capacity in the event of natural disasters, as he warned that preparation makes a substantial difference.
“As a survivor of Superstorm Sandy, I know firsthand hand how important are the preparation for em emergencies and disaster response for coastal communities like Far Rockaway,” said the politician. “A decade after Sandy, it appears that the City has done nothing, presenting a poor evacuation plan and building little capacity, which could lead to untold losses when the next disaster strikes.”
At press time, neither the Adams Administration nor the City’s Office of Emergency Management had commented on the findings made by the State Comptroller’s audit.