Thursday, October 29, 2015

Superstorm Sandy: Governor Cuomo Reflects, Issues Report Detaling State Efforts

 
Governor Andrew Cuomo today commemorated the three-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy and released a report detailing the continued progress made by New York State. It underscores the advancements made in rebuilding homes, businesses, and large-scale infrastructure projects in communities and neighborhoods, as spearheaded by the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. View the report here.

The Governor also called for a moment of silence this evening in honor of the 61 men and women who lost their lives to the storm’s impact in New York State. This moment of silence will occur at 8:00 p.m. on Oct. 29, marking the approximate time when the storm surge first began in New York City.

“As we approach the three-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, I ask all New Yorkers to remember those who were lost and those whose lives were forever changed by this terrible storm,” said Governor Cuomo. “As a state, we are not just rebuilding what was before – we are making our communities safer and smarter, and rising to meet the challenges posed by climate change and extreme weather. We are seizing every opportunity to reimagine New York to be stronger and more resilient for generations to come.”

Since its creation by the Governor in June 2013, the Office of Storm Recovery has assisted more than 10,000 New Yorkers to rebuild and repair their homes, awarded $41.3 million in grants to small businesses, and facilitated the proposal of approximately 700 projects through the grassroots NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program. 

The report released today also highlights several large-scale infrastructure projects, including Living with the Bay in Nassau County and Living Breakwaters in Staten Island− being implemented through the federal Rebuild By Design Competition.

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy struck the New York metropolitan region, causing unprecedented damage to as many as 300,000 housing units, disrupting power for two million utility customers, and affecting various methods of transportation (including roads and public transportation systems). A total of 61 individuals died throughout the state as a result of the storm, which came less than a year after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.

Governor Cuomo tasked the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery to drive statewide recovery and invest into the communities hit hardest the $4.4 billion made available after Superstorm Sandy through the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program.

“From the earliest days of the State’s recovery, we recognized that we could not make every decision from Albany,” said Interim Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery, Lisa Bova-Hiatt. “Setting out to balance top-down strategies with a range of grassroots, bottom-up approaches, we have sought to empower New Yorkers− and the communities in which they live and work− to participate in this important process. Today we remember all those affected by Superstorm Sandy, and reiterate our commitment to yielding a stronger, more resilient future.”

While the report is not intended to be a comprehensive listing of each and every recovery effort, it serves to emphasize key actions and programmatic accomplishments that have been realized in the last year. It also aims to stress the State’s main ongoing themes, which have been to 1) Address immediate needs while focusing on the future; 2) Cut red tape; 3) Come back stronger than before; 4) Take a community-wide and regional perspective; and 5) Use a ground-up approach.

More information can be found at http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/.

Source: Press Office, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo 

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