‘People Were Scrambling’: Officials Press for Better Emergency Plans for NYC Wildfires, Flash Floods

Councilmembers and the NYC Comptroller’s Office have raised concerns about the city’s ability to handle climate emergencies. They propose more preparation ahead of wildfires, and legislation to offer shelter during downpours.

As global warming advances, city officials claim the Big Apple needs to be better prepared to face unprecedented climate risks like wildfires and flash floods.

Rare storms that usually happen once every five years hit New York City five times in 2023. And last fall, when New York faced over 90 days of drought, the Fire Department responded to 271 brush fires across the five boroughs, the largest number on record.

“It is now more important than ever to stay ahead of the next climate emergency,” Comptroller Brad Lander said in a letter sent to the city’s emergency management department, NYCEM, on Monday. 

The Comptroller’s Office said it has yet to see a comprehensive city plan for helping New Yorkers navigate wildfire, and Lander—who is running for mayor—urged the department to share information on how it handles such emergencies.

Pressure is on to better respond to unprecedented climate threats on other fronts, too. Lander’s letter comes less than a week after a bill was introduced in the City Council that would require NYCEM to establish a pilot shelter program for people to seek refuge during flash flooding.

Tasked with letting New Yorkers know what to do when an emergency hits, NYCEM said in an email that it “maintains a suite of capabilities and tools for responding to all emergency events.” 

The agency’s main channel of communication with the public is NotifyNYC. The platform provides social media, email and text alerts about emergencies to any resident that calls 311, signs up for it by downloading the app or creates an account on its website.

There are over 1.2 million New Yorkers enrolled in the alert system, according to the latest Mayor’s Management Report. That’s a small fraction of the Big Apple’s adult population of almost 7 million people. 

In fact, when Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall in September of 2023, 97 percent of New Yorkers over 16 years old had not subscribed to NotifyNYC emergency notifications, the Comptroller’s Office pointed out in a previous report. 

When it comes to wildfires, NYCEM does have an online guide, but it’s tailored to homeowners, instructing them to remove old vegetation around the property and do other maintenance to reduce damages to their homes. 

So what should renters and everyone else be doing?

First, it’s important to note that areas dense with brush, such as the city’s parklands, are more at risk of a fire when windy conditions are mixed with periods of drought. The brush fires last fall were mostly concentrated in local forests, from Inwood in Manhattan to Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

Residents should call 911 if a brush fire is suspected, avoid going to areas where there might be a fire, refrain from setting up campfires or other open flames and “dispose of your cigarette butts and matches properly,” NYCEM shared in an email. Officials also suggest removing “litter and any excessive brush or leaves from sidewalks abutting residences and businesses.”  

But in June of 2023, when smoke from wildfires in Canada turned the skies orange and prompted an air quality crisis, “the city was unprepared” said Louise Yeung, chief climate officer at the Comptroller’s office. 

“People were scrambling to figure out what to do with their kids for school or after school sports. Workers did not have any protections or guidance about working conditions, whether they were safe or not,” she said.

At a City Council hearing last week, lawmakers also pressed NYCEM officials about  protecting residents during flash floods.

“People in our communities are at risk every time there is a flood,” said Joann Ariola, chair of the Council’s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management. 

Ariola spoke in strong support of a bill, introduced at the hearing, that would require NYCEM to set up a pilot shelter program, so residents could weather the storm in higher ground when a flash flood hits. 

Meanwhile, NYCEM Commissioner Heather Roiter rebutted that the department “adamantly opposed” the legislation, saying it “would consume resources” to limited areas, affecting the department’s wider response.

“The legislation would force the city to open pre-designated sites at a distance from an impacted person’s home. And the journey to that site could be significantly more dangerous than moving to higher ground or going to a known safe location close by to them that they can see is not impacted,” Roiter also noted.

Instead, New Yorkers should access this page for guidance, have a bag with supplies ready, sign up for alerts at Notify NYC and come up with an emergency plan, NYCEM told City Limits in an email. That includes having two meeting places—“one outside of the home and one outside of the neighborhood”—and getting to higher ground either in their own apartment building, “a neighbor or friend’s home, or places within the community.” 

NYCEM underscores that because flash floods are hard to forecast, it should be up to each person to “identify places that are suitable for them.”

Lander’s office, meanwhile, says the city should be taking on the responsibility of keeping people safe.

“Climate change is bringing all sorts of unprecedented emergencies to the five boroughs,” said Yeung. “And we need to start being more proactive instead of reactive.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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