Update on local flood protection measures, by Brian Abate

New York City officials came to the Atlantic Basin to celebrate the completion of the Interim Flood Protection Measures (IFPM) program.
“With the addition of IFPM, low-lying, vulnerable areas in Red Hook get some added protection from potential storms,” said Emergency Management Commissioner John Scrivani.
The Atlantic Basin design uses semi-permanent HESCO barriers with openings that allow for normal site operations. Those openings can then be closed off by just-in-time Tiger Dams 12-72 hours before storms.

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The IFPM program was completed in time for this year’s hurricane season.
“We were ahead of schedule and under budget,” said NYC Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Jamie Torres-Springer.
While getting the IFPM program in place is good news for Red Hook, it will be a while before a permanent flood protection project is completed. Right now city officials are still working on a plan for permanent protection.
“We are continuing to work with the community to design a permanent coastal resiliency project that will provide long-term protections,” said Jainey Bavishi, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency.
According to Torres-Springer there may be an announcement about plans for the permanent project coming in the fall but construction isn’t expected to start until 2024.
Red Hook businessman Jim Tampakis has been pushing for better flood protection in Red Hook for years. He asked about the possibility of flood insurance relief for local businesses, and resident5sl. Scrivani said he wasn’t sure yet and would have to get in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)
Meeting with Amazon
Tampakis has also pushed for last-mile warehouses in Red Hook to use the waterfront and other green modes of transportation rather than trucks and plans to meet with Amazon officials about that. In a press conference on August 4, Mayor de Blasio and DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman talked about some his ideas.
“[Let’s] get out of the truck business as much as possible,” de Blasio said. “Turn to rail. Turn to the water, one of our great possibilities that’s minimally used in this city. Look at this, one of the greatest coastal cities on earth, very little of our freight’s going on the water, a lot more could. Go to smaller vehicles, electric vehicles, human powered vehicles, even.”
Gutman agreed, saying “As you’ve challenged us to re-examine and re-imagine how we move people in the city to reduce our dependence on private cars, we need to do exactly the same thing with freight for large diesel trucks.”
Gutman went on to say “We can increase our use of rail. We can turn back to our rivers, which were our original highways, and use them just as we’re now doing for passenger ferries. We can do it for freight ferries, and it goes on and on. And then for the last mile, there is no reason for large, oversized trucks to be making local deliveries. We should create intermodal distribution centers in all five boroughs where things can be offloaded into electric carts and small electric vehicles for the last mile delivery.”
There is still a lot of work that needs to be done and Tampakis will continue to fight for a better future for Red Hook. For now, gaining more support to use waterways and other green modes of transportation along with the completion of the IFPM program are important steps.