Five years ago, Hurricane Ida changed New York City. An unprecedented downpour turned streets into rivers, flooded homes, and led to the tragic loss of 13 New Yorkers — many living in basement apartments. For the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Ida was a stark warning and call to action.
New York’s drainage infrastructure, built generations ago for milder weather, is no longer sufficient. Since 2021, six of the most severe rainfall events in the past 50 years have occurred. Mayor Mamdani has called on DEP to accelerate long-term solutions while staying focused on immediate actions to help New Yorkers.
Since Ida, the city has made historic investments to strengthen resilience. We’ve upgraded 50 miles of sewers and we’re investing $9 billion to expand and modernize the system, including major upsizing projects like the one planned for Bushwick’s Knickerbocker Ave. And the mayor committed $108 million to upgrade more than 6,700 underperforming storm drains.
At the same time, we must maintain our existing infrastructure. Already this year, crews have cleared more than 71,000 storm drains. While that might not make headlines, it keeps streets passable during heavy rain. DEP also expanded and modernized our fleet of sewer and storm drain cleaning trucks to support this work.
But we can’t rely on sewer pipes alone. We’re redesigning our streets to actively manage water instead of merely channeling it. Three new green infrastructure projects in Queens, an $8.4 million investment, will turn concrete medians into stormwater sponges. Seven miles of porous pavement are installed in Borough Park, with another 45 miles planned. Thousands of sidewalk rain gardens now help reduce flooding.
We are also building resiliency into public spaces using “cloudburst” strategies — localized infrastructure designed to redirect and store stormwater. The first cloudburst project was completed at NYCHA’s South Jamaica Houses, and more are underway, including the mayor’s $95 million investment this year in Homecrest, Brooklyn.
We’re expanding the successful bluebelt model — using streams, ponds and wetlands to move, store and filter rainwater. Staten Island has relied on bluebelts since the 1990s, and eight new Mid-Island projects have been completed in the last five years. Now Brooklyn will get its first bluebelts in Prospect Park and the Jewel St. area.
Technology has become central to resilience. DEP now uses 700 sensors to monitor flow through sewers and street-level flooding in real-time, improving emergency response and guiding infrastructure planning. After Ida, NotifyNYC began targeted alerts for basement apartment residents before intense rainfall.
Resilience also means protecting our coastline. Major coastal protection projects continue in Lower Manhattan and in Red Hook, Brooklyn — communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy. This year, the Mamdani administration invested $43.2 million to expand DEP’s Bureau of Coastal Resilience, adding 69 dedicated staff to safeguard New York City’s 520 miles of shoreline.
We know climate change doesn’t affect all New Yorkers equally, and resilience is fundamentally an issue of environmental justice. That’s why the city is investing in flood prone communities, many of which have suffered historic disinvestment.
Five years after Ida, we’ve made meaningful progress, but the work ahead is immense. Fully modernizing stormwater infrastructure requires billions of dollars and decades of consistent effort. That’s not an excuse to move slowly — it’s a reason to move faster.
We owe urgency to those who lost their lives and homes during Hurricane Ida, and to all New Yorkers who deserve safety during extreme rainfall. We can’t stop the rain, but we can build a city ready for it. Because climate resilience is not optional; it’s the duty of a city that protects its people.
Garcia is commissioner of NYC Department of Environmental Protection.