Bayside Councilwoman Wants Biannual Sewer System Maintenance: Reports

BAYSIDE, NY — Councilwoman Vickie Paladino wants the city to provide general maintenance to the sewer system twice a year after her district was inundated with flood waters, according to multiple reports.

“It’s no easy fix,” Paladino told Pix 11 after flash floods partially knocked out power in Bayside and Whitestone, according to Con Edison.

A five-block stretch of homes on 160th Street from 22nd Avenue to 25th Drive in Whitestone were flooded between midnight and 5 a.m. on Sept. 14, according to the news broadcaster.

Many of the homes had basements, attached garages and sloping driveways that are below street level that took on water that was shoulder-high or more, said the report. While the city in general can handle rainfall at 1.75 inches per hour, Paladino’s district cannot.

On the one year anniversary of Hurricane Ida, Mayor Eric Adams said he was committed to allocating $1.9 billion toward a flood prevention program and that he plans to improve Queens lacking sewer system. A comprehensive sustainability plan won’t be unveiled until April 2023.

In the meantime, the city has installed 11,000 rain gardens — depressed areas that help rain soak into the ground and prevent sewer system overloads— and it has plans to install an additional 1,00o before the year is closed.

Rain gardens can hold up to 2,500 gallons of water, the mayor said during the Sept. 1 announcement.

“Last night’s storm showed why we need to continue to find new ways to handle intensifying storms and why our administration is dedicated to making the city more resilient to the storms,” said a City Hall spokesman to Pix11. “We are committed to creating a very different stormwater management system from the one we inherited, and a multiagency effort is currently underway.”

The Bayside councilwoman was particularly incensed on behalf of her constituents because many of the residents were denied FEMA recovery funds eight months after Hurricane Ida and were among the 4,703 claimants who the city Comptroller’s Office also denied money too. Several of the people believed their requests for funding after already facing storm damage from last year was denied because they were middle-class citizens, reported ABC 7.

"To come back and see the devastation again, every time it rains … these people are fearful," Palladino told ABC 7. "They weren't compensated from the comptroller's office. Some of them waited seven or eight months to get FEMA money."