Kaminsky urges State agency to address Island Park flooding

Posted

State Sen. Todd Kaminsky questioned the commissioner of the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services during a hearing in Albany last week about the progress of flood mitigation efforts in Island Park.

Kaminsky called the flooding “atrocious” during the hearing, and urged agency representatives to meet with residents of Island Park to notify them of what is being done and to explain the delay.

“It is disgraceful that four years after Superstorm Sandy, a drizzle can still flood Island Park,” Kaminsky said after the hearing. “We have had standing water so bad that parents had to hand their children to firefighters through car windows. These bureaucratic delays are threatening the safety of Long Islanders, and we need to end them.”

The DHSES, under Commissioner John Melville, currently administers a $40 million grant to the Village of Island Park through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which aims at helping communities implement hazard mitigation measures following major disasters.

Melville said during the hearing that Island Park is one of nearly 5,000 public assistance projects as a result of Sandy. He added that $1.8 million was released for the design and study in Island Park. Once the results of that study are submitted to FEMA in March, he said, the agency will decide whether or not the rest of the funds will be made available.

“Our recovery staff, they take a beating sometimes because things take so long,” Melville said at the hearing, citing the complicated process of post-Sandy projects. “…But our people in our section, they work hard and they advocate for their constituents…”