President Biden late Sunday approved an emergency declaration for New York state, freeing up federal disaster aid to help people recover from last week’s devastating storms and flooding.
Hardest hit was Suffolk County’s northern coast, where flooding displaced hundreds of people from their homes in the middle of the night and washed out a road in Stony Brook. Smithtown and Brookhaven were also damaged.
On Sunday, Gov. Hochul’s office said the storms led to several rescues from raging waters and the failure of a dam — prompting the National Weather Service to declare Suffolk County’s first-ever flood emergency. Hochul called it a “1 in 1,000 year rain event.”
More than 2,000 residents and business owners were injured, and Commack and East Setauket saw “multiple sinkholes” in addition to downed trees and more than 70 structures that sustained major damage or were destroyed, Hochul’s statement said.
The governor had on Friday declared a state of emergency for the affected region and requested federal aid after one record 9.4 inches of rain fell in western Suffolk County overnight Monday into Tuesday. Senators joined Hochul in demanding federal support.
“When you have a tragedy like this and roads are gone, we can get the Army Corps of Engineers to come here so we can get this reconstructed so we can get everyone back to normal again“, Senator Mario Mattera told ABC News.
Biden’s declaration authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency to the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save life, to protect property, public health and safety, and to reduce or avert the threat of disaster.”
The governor praised the move.
“I commend the hard-working damage assessment teams on the ground who provided information to secure this vital federal disaster relief,” she said. “I thank President Biden and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell for their continued support in helping Suffolk County residents get the help they need.”