Westchester was left with flooding and other storm damage that resulted in five deaths after the remnants of Hurricane Ida struck the region. Early last month, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led a delegation of elected officials including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Westchester County Executive George Latimer to view the devastation in the town of Mamaroneck.
Sections of Mamaroneck had up to 14 feet of water, flooding businesses and homes. First responders performed more than 150 water rescues. There were at least 535 flooded homes with about 1,000 people displaced and 310 abandoned cars. Damage from the storm was approaching $100 million in Mamaroneck as of early October.
During a Sept. 3 news conference at the Mamaroneck Fire Department, Schumer pledged to unstick Army Corp of Engineers flood control projects from the red tape that brought them to a halt under the Trump Administration.
Schumer has now announced that he has secured $1.5 billion in disaster supplemental aid that will put stalled Army Corps of Engineers construction projects on a fast track, including the flood control projects for the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake Rivers in Westchester.
In making the announcement, Schumer said, “The past administration bottled up this vital flood mitigation project in OMB (Office of Management and Budget) bureaucratic jail based on faulty logic, and I”™ve worked day and night for the last month to bust that logjam. The federal government is one step closer to moving forward with the flood-protection Project for Mamaroneck and nearby communities and finally protecting a community that has suffered for decades because of severe flooding.”
“This is beyond a minor water inconvenience of a 100-year storm,” Latimer said. “Getting the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake River Flood Risk Management Project moving forward is a lifeline that is desperately needed.”
The Mamaroneck and Sheldrake flood control project that now may get underway had its origins following a storm in 2007 that produced flooding so severe that an estimated 40% of Mamaroneck”™s residents had to be evacuated.
According to Schumer”™s office, the project would include constructing retaining walls and a diversion culvert, deepening and widening river channels, elevating structures and replacing two road bridges that constrict floodwaters.
