Climate Change and New York City: Record-breaking Rainfall Strains City’s Infrastructure Once More 2023

FLOOD INTRODUCTION

Warmer atmosphere has the ability to hold and carry large amount of moisture, a situation that has been felt by the city in the recent past. Nonetheless the measures put in place towards the modern storm surprises have not been adequate.

Hear, there was a very bad weather which rained over 7 inches in less than a day on a Friday in some parts of New York City; the streets were turned into fast flowing rivers and the subway system was flooded because the subway is partially underground.

It was another 2 years after the flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida claiming no less than 13 lives in the city to remind of the extent of the problem with elderly infrastructure vulnerable to intensifying climate change-related extreme events in New York City. Furthermore, more than ten years since Hurricane Sandy led the authorities to redefine the concept of climate preparedness in the city, it is clear that there is much that needs to be done.

In some of the worst hit regions, accounts of heavy precipitation were observed by from 1 to 2. 5 inches per hour. Flash flooding which included; The nursery Road had to be closed down; Most of the cars were flooded and many city buses were submerged. Due to the dangerous weather conditions, subway, regional rail lines, as well as airline operations were either disrupted or heavily delayed. in Brooklyn, one school was forced to be closed because of the storm; it had to be evacuated.

Another official, Joseph Kane, an infrastructure specialist at the Brookings Institute, a nonprofit research group, pointed out that urban leaders, including those in New York, are faced with the basic reality that extreme weather at worse and more volatility at best, is becoming the norm and even more, require more spending than ever. Regrettably, the usual reaction is inadequate and timed rarely properly.

In this regard, Steve Bowen, Chief Science Officer at the Gallagher Re; a global reinsurance broker, pointed out that severe weather events are showing that risks are developing much faster in cities like New York because of the increasing pressure of climate change on rainfall and the stress it imposes on infrastructure. “That is why these warm layers have the potential to hold even more moisture and then in turn release them, thus leading to storms,” Bowen added. https://www. nbcnews.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/nyc-flooding-climate-change-infrastructure-limitations-rcna118170 He said, “It is actually as simple as this: We presently lack sufficient infrastructure in New York, in the United States, and across the Global – particularly, inadequate to prevent the current climatic conditions which are rampant, insufficient to cope with the future climatic changes.” On Friday, about 23 million people New York Governor Kathy Hochul put New York City,

Long Island and the Hudson Valley under a state of emergency describing the storm as a deadly rain event. NYC Mayor Eric Adams also come under immense criticism for his slow response to the storm situation and his minimal interaction with the public before finally giving them the information they needed that reported the storm as a severe weather event that would cause death. Also, he declared a separate state of emergency which was among the causes of the backlash.

This precipitation the New York City’s Emergency Management Commissioner Zachary Iscol pointed out –was the highest the city has seen since hurricane Ida; Hurricane sandy in October of 2012 was meant to remind New York officials about the risks posed by climate and weather.

Hurricane Sandy stormed the Atlantic City as a post-tropical cyclone as well as it caused a devastating storm surge along the coast of New York and New Jersey. This resulted in blackouts, which blacked out 2 million people in New York city and led to loss of 43 city residents according to the city comptroller’s report. Moreover, the minor or major infrastructure damage affected 69,815 housing units out of which a part or all of the house was destroyed.

The total cost of the storm’s damage to New York City was estimated at approximately $19 billion https:Technicalsofi allows a student to preview the material that he or she has reviewed and perhaps self reinforce. https://www.amny.com/web-stories/miss-usa-2023/ Not sufficient progress has been made in the strengthening of New York against the climate risks according to the city comptroller’s office. In April 2022, Louise Yeung an independent climatologist, who also serves as the chief climate officer at the comptroller’s office stated that, “Nine and a half years after Hurricane sandy and five months after Hurricane Ida,

we are still unprepared for upcoming storms Our infrastructures, which have been put in place for decades, are getting more dilapidated by the day.” According to the comptroller’s office, a report also, there is the fact that many of the resilience projects received a financial contribution from the city that remained unused. In one of the interviews, Yeung used the terms ‘slow’ and ‘inefficient’ to describe the report’s characterization of the progress that has been made in these endeavors with recent events such as flash floods and Hurricane Ida adding to these concerns.

Some of the investments made by the city in regard to Hurricane Sandy include construction of floodwalls, berms, and levees that focus on coastal flooding and sea level rise hence do not respond to the problems of extreme precipitation. Yeung also stressed, as I know heavy rainstorms as one of them You have seen today.

are on the rise because of the rising calamities caused by climate change. This issue is something that demands another kind of investment such as development of green infrastructure, modifications of the system of storm sewer and better emergency communication systems that would have to be focused on the localized flash floods. “We are failing to tackle the problems at the speed it requires to address climate change, and this shall continue to be a problem any time we are affected by rainstorms or hurricanes,” Yeung said in an interview.

Unfortunately, during and after Hurricane Ida, 11 people died from flash floods that flooded basements with no possibility to escape. What maybe important to remember is that many of these basement dwellings were not considered actual living structures and were not recognized by the city officials. In response to this, the comptroller’s office carried out an evaluation where he discovered that there were more than a few hundred thousand basements in the city that could be flooded.

Among them, some proposals are to register all basement dwelling, involve safety check and protection for occupant for example, putting in valves which prevent the sewer water to flow into cellar. The postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia Climate School in New York City, Mona Hemmati stated that this storm was a stark reminder of the risks the coastal communities experience especially when they are having to deal with climate change effects as well.

Some of the risks associated with flooding are more prevalent in densely populated cities such as New York City where; conditions such as high runoff and urban flooding resulting from such factors as poor permeable surfaces which do not allow any seepage of water into the ground. Furthermore,

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