With Hurricane Sandy still fresh in the eyes of many New Yorkers who are suffering from its aftermath, several experts and officials have commented on what New Yorkers and the powers that be should learn from it. One current Manhattan borough presidential candidate provided a few lessons that could be taken away from Sandy.
Julie Menin, former chair of Community Board 1 in Manhattan, recently authored a policy report that outlined what she felt the city could do to better prepare for a storm or another type of disaster in the aftermath of Sandy.
According to Menin, there are four measures the city needs to take: improve its emergency communication system, enhance volunteer coordination, make smaller infrastructure upgrades now so it would cost less later, and promote business interruption insurance for small businesses.
Menin believes that New Yorkers need to be more aware of the underutilized NotifyNYC service, which is a communication system for city residents that was adopted by New York City in 2007.
“Disaster response is not only a critical policy issue; it is also very personal to me,” said Menin in a statement. “Working with my community in lower Manhattan after 9/11, I started Wall Street Rising as a nonprofit organization to help rebuild my community, aid small businesses and residents and to serve as a central repository for information about lower Manhattan. After seeing the destruction and lack of coordination in the relief efforts after Sandy, I feel that we still have a long way to go in developing a coordinated relief system.”
As for volunteer coordination, Menin wants a permanent volunteer disaster relief corps set up along with the creation of a volunteer gird. Menin also believes that volunteer efforts should set up partnerships with grassroots movements like Occupy, which assisted in Sandy relief efforts around the city.
“No matter how organized the volunteer response is to the next emergency, we are sure to see a new grassroots organization perform admirably without being integrated into the system,” wrote Menin in her report. “This is a privilege, a ‘good problem.’ Occupy Sandy has received extensive coverage for their enormous volunteer operation, but the group was not formed until after the storm, and the Occupy movement from which it is derived did not exist 15 months ago.
“An effective disaster response model embraces relief in any form,” continued Menin. “While a group like Occupy Sandy may not have been included in pre-Sandy preparedness meetings, there is no reason they could not be integrated into a centralized relief effort once their operations were underway.”
With a dire situation in many public housing units in the areas heavily damaged by Sandy, Menin suggests that all public housing be equipped with pumps and that important tools aren’t kept in the basement of buildings, in case of a flood. She also talked about how lack of access to what’s now considered the bare essentials have hurt those in public housing.
“The city should ensure that it has proper pumping equipment that can be dispersed to NYCHA buildings and other low-lying apartment buildings in the event of flooding,” wrote Menin. “Additionally, NYCHA buildings should be outfitted with wireless Internet access, for both economic and safety reasons. The problems that beset NYCHA buildings during Sandy could also be avoided by discouraging the placement of critical machinery in NYCHA basements.”
While grand improvements are necessary for the city to respond to the new normal when it comes to weather, Menin believes that small actions taken now can reduce the pain that those in Coney Island, the Rockaways and Staten Island currently feel.
“Planning for sea walls and marshlands are all very encouraging, but we can be doing things right now, like ensuring hospitals have protected backup generators and public housing has functioning pumps,” Menin said.