Environmentalists say an Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to protect the city from coastal storms using walls and gates fails to address other climate change-related threats, like heavy rainfall.

Eleven years after hurricane Sandy killed 43 New Yorkers dead and caused $19 billion in damages, plans to barricade the city from coastal storms—with over 82 miles of flood protection measures—have yet to leave the drawing board.

The $52.6 billion dollar storm surge protection project will be funded by both the state and federal government and designed by the Army Corps of Engineers. Construction is set to take off in 2030 and take approximately 14 years to complete.

Last September, the Army Corps published a study that laid out the master plan and gave the public six months to weigh in on the draft. A decision on whether they will move forward with the proposal or start from scratch was due in July, but the Army Corps announced last month that it would be “delayed until later this fall,” with no specific deadline.

Meanwhile, 30 environmental groups are demanding a redo of the current plan. The main issue, according to advocates, is that it falls short of addressing climate change-related threats beyond coastal flooding, like heavy rainfall and sea level rise. They also want the project to incorporate more nature-based solutions like rain gardens and storage tanks to collect rainwater and tackle inland flooding.

“Our biggest concern is that this project is not a multiple climate hazard project. It is not accounting for sea level rise or any of the flooding brought on by the heavy rains that we have seen recently,” said Tyler Taba, senior manager for climate policy at the Waterfront Alliance, one of the environmental groups pushing back.

RELATED READING: ‘Predictable Emergencies’: NYC Flash Floods Spur Renewed Calls for Basement Legalization

Last month, a storm dumped more than seven inches of rain on New York City in less than 24 hours, flooding streets and halting public transit. Two years earlier, rains from Hurricane Ida caused similar inland flooding that killed 13 residents.

With the city facing multiple severe weather threats beyond the coast, advocates urge that the Army Corps project take other flood-risk precautions into account.

“The [current] project is addressing how to protect us from another Hurricane Sandy. And I totally understand that and we should absolutely be looking at storm surge as a legitimate risk in the region,” Taba added. “But should we be looking at it as the only risk on a mega project like this?” 

Bryce Wisemiller, the Army Corps of Engineers’ project manager for the New York study—which focused on the five boroughs as well as neighboring New Jersey—said in an email that storm surge “is not the only flood risk under evaluation in this study” but adds that working them all into one project “may not be the most efficient and effective approach.”

“For this study area, by far, the most significant risk to life safety and property damage, as illustrated by Superstorm Sandy, is coastal storm surge,” Wisemiller said.

A plan with pitfalls

Over the last decade, the Army Corps of Engineers studied five possible solutions for barricading the city from coastal super storms like Sandy, and eventually wound up choosing one. 

The selected plan, known as “Alternative 3B,” features 80 miles of on-land infrastructure like floodwalls, levees, deployable gates and elevated promenades. It also includes 2.2 miles of a variety of storm surge gates and other structures inside the water, including sea walls at 12 locations throughout the city.

New York-New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries coastal storm risk management feasibility study

A map showing where storm-surge barriers and other protections would be placed under the Army Corps’ draft proposal.

For Kate Boicourt, director of NY-NJ climate resilient coasts and watersheds at the Environmental Defense Fund, however, the sea walls can present challenges.

“In some cases [the seawalls] can be problematic with heavy rains, because they can back up and create a bathtub effect,” Boicourt said. “Imagine you’re in a bathtub, and you slosh the water and it hits one side [of the tub] and it comes back at you. That’s what’s happening.”

And the bathtub effect can be particularly yucky when the sewers in New York City overflow during heavy rains. More than half of the city’s sewers use an archaic system that collects both sewer water and storm runoff in the same pipes. When it rains too much, the pipes can’t handle the amount of water coming in, causing them to spill over and dump untreated waste in a process known as Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO).

“Inland flooding is as large a concern as coastal flooding in a neighborhood like Gowanus,” said Andrea Parker, executive director at Gowanus Canal Conservancy.

Parker says one way to address the issue is to invest in a flood risk plan that can help build a more “spongy city” as she calls it. In other words, create mechanisms to absorb or collect the rain before it ever makes its way into the city’s pipes.

“I’m talking about green infrastructure like rain gardens that hold water or storage tanks and rainwater systems where water gets reused within the building. There are a ton of different technologies that can be implemented to basically slow the way that stormwater is getting to the sewer,” Parker said. 

Wisemiller, from the Army Corps of Engineers, said in an email that the focus of the storm surge project has been on measures “that can best possibly manage severe storm risks” and added that because “green and nature based solutions typically can best manage more frequent, less severe storm impacts, their incorporation into the plan, so far, has been limited.”

But last month, when New York was grappling with remnants of inland Tropical Storm Ophelia, the city witnessed one of its wettest days on record—canceling flights, closing down subway lines and flooding neighborhoods.

“We haven’t yet really internalized increased precipitation as the really, really dangerous piece of climate change. But it is,” Parker told City Limits.

Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who publicly voiced his concern about the draft plan at a hearing earlier this month, echoed the sentiment. 

“I think the scale of the devastation of Superstorm Sandy has oriented policymakers in the ensuing years toward high expensive coastal resiliency projects to try to keep our waterfront community safe. And they’re necessary and important. But they’re not the whole enchilada,” he added. 

The Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) told City Limits that when it comes to mitigating flood risks, the city needs to be prepared for multiple weather threats. 

“Our infrastructure should protect us from multiple climate hazards while supporting community uses all New Yorkers can benefit from,” said Executive Director, Elijah Hutchinson, in an email.

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

By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and SAMYA KULLAB (Associated Press)

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A premature baby squirms inside a glass incubator in the neonatal ward of al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip. He cries out as intravenous lines are connected to his tiny body. A ventilator helps him breathe as a catheter delivers medication and monitors flash his fragile vital signs.

His life hinges on the constant flow of electricity, which is in danger of running out imminently unless the hospital can get more fuel for its generators. Once the generators stop, hospital director Iyad Abu Zahar fears that the babies in the ward, unable to breathe on their own, will perish.

“The responsibility on us is huge,” he said.

Doctors treating premature babies across Gaza are grappling with similar fears. At least 130 premature babies are at “grave risk” across six neonatal units, aid workers said. The dangerous fuel shortages are caused by the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which started — along with airstrikes — after Hamas militants attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7.

At least 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are unable to access essential health services, and some 5,500 are due to give birth in the coming month, according to the World Health Organization.

At least seven of the almost 30 hospitals have been forced to shut down due to damage from relentless Israeli strikes and lack of power, water and other supplies. Doctors in the remaining hospitals said they are on the brink. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday it has enough fuel to last three days to serve critical needs.

“The world cannot simply look on as these babies are killed by the siege on Gaza … A failure to act is to sentence these babies to death,” said Melanie Ward, chief executive of the Medical Aid for Palestinians aid group.

None of the 20 aid trucks that crossed into Gaza on Saturday, the first since the siege was imposed, contained fuel, amid Israeli fears it will end up in Hamas’ hands. Limited fuel supplies inside Gaza were being sent to hospital generators.

Seven tankers took fuel from a U.N. depot on the Gaza side of the border, but it was unclear if any of that was destined for the hospitals.

But will eventually run out if more is not permitted to enter.

Tarik Jašarević, a WHO spokesman, said 150,000 liters (40,000 gallons) of fuel are required to offer basic services in Gaza’s five main hospitals.

Abu Zahar worries about how long his facility can hold out.

“If the generator stops, which we are expecting in the coming few hours due to the heavy demands of different departments in the hospital, the incubators in the intensive care unit will be in a very critical situation,” he said.

Guillemette Thomas, medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in the Palestinian territories, said some of the babies could die within hours, and others in a couple of days, if they don’t receive the special care and medication they urgently need.

“It’s sure that these babies are in danger,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s a real emergency to take care of these babies, as it is an emergency to take care of the population of Gaza who are suffering from these bombings since the past two weeks.”

The hospital must care for patients in northern and central Gaza since several hospitals shut down, he said, forcing it to more than double its patient capacity. That also puts a strain on the limited electricity.

Nesma al-Haj brought her newborn daughter to the hospital from Nuseirat, where she was recently displaced from northern Gaza, after she suffered from oxygen deprivation and extreme pain, she said.

The baby girl was born three days ago but soon developed complications. “The hospital is lacking in supplies,” she said, speaking from al-Aqsa. “We are afraid that if the situation gets worse, there won’t be any medicine left to treat our kids.”

The problems are exacerbated by the dirty water many have been forced to use since Israel cut off the water supply. Abu Zahar says mothers are mixing baby formula with the contaminated water to feed their infants. It has contributed to the rise in critical cases in the ward.

In the al-Awda Hospital, a private facility in northern Jabalia, up to 50 babies are born almost every day, said hospital director Ahmed Muhanna. The hospital received an evacuation order from the Israeli military, but continued to work.

“The situation is tragic in every sense of the word,” he said. “We have recorded a large deficit in emergency medicines and anesthetic,” as well as other medical supplies.

To ration dwindling supplies, Muhanna said all scheduled operations were stopped and the hospital devoted all its resources to emergencies and childbirths. Complex neo-natal cases are sent to al-Aqsa.

Al-Awda has enough fuel to last four days at most, Muhanna said. “We have appealed to many international institutions, the World Health Organization, to supply hospitals with fuel, but to no avail so far,” he said.

Thomas said women have already given birth in U.N.-run schools where tens of thousands of displaced people have sought shelter.

“These women are in danger, and the babies are in danger right now,” she said. “That’s a really critical situation.”

____

Magdy reported from Cairo. Kullab reported from Baghdad.

Boston Police are at the scene of a fatal plunge from a building in the Financial District where a victim is dead after falling an unknown number of stories.

Police officials said a call reporting the fall at 100 Summer Street  came in at 7:54 a.m. The victim in fall was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a Boston Police spokesperson.

Homicide detectives have been requested and are responding to the investigation, according to police.

According to reports, the victim was a window washer at work at the buidling.

Federal investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, have also been notified, according to Boston Police.

– Developing