After municipal authorities were caught off guard by Hurricane Ida, devastated victims of the hurricane were angered and horrified on Wednesday when New York City Comptroller Brand Lander rejected all 4,703 claims for property losses.
This week, the city’s top numbers-cruncher sent letters to impacted households, largely in Queens, denying their demands for monetary compensation after the September 2021 storm in the Big Apple overloaded sewers, resulting in 13 fatalities, significant property damage, and widespread evictions.
Amit Shivprasad tweeted, “Watching your older and retired folks living in their vehicle and using a porta toilet is cruel that words cannot convey.”
He also shared a picture of his mobile office setup on the street where he works. “Our local and state authorities promised to bring [my parents] back into their houses, but one year later they are still displaced,” the statement said.
Lander cited a court decision from 1907 that said the city is not responsible for harm caused by “exceptional and severe rainfalls.”
Last September, a hurricane blew across the Big Apple, dropping nine inches of rain in some locations.
As the municipal sewage system was overwhelmed by the flood, several victims were trapped in basement flats that turned into underwater tombs and flooded all the way to the ceiling.
Officials from the city and state stated at the time that they were unprepared for the flood and delayed in providing storm warnings.
Tara Ramskriet, 42, and Nicholas Ramskriet, 22, were tenants of Shivprasad who perished as a result of the flooding in their basement flat.
On Wednesday, Dameshwar Ramskriet told the Mailonline, “I haven’t received anything from the city.” I misplaced my wife.
He did not answer inquiries left on his voicemail and instead sent any further queries to his attorney.
Amrita Bhagwandin, 52, the neighbour next door, was one of the more fortunate people. According to a nearby online news source called The City, Ida only flooded her basement apartment in Hollis, Queens, incurring $125,000 in damage.
She said that the home’s foundation had been compromised and that the wiring and plumbing needed to be entirely rebuilt.
She told The City, “I’m at a loss here trying to find a contractor with a reasonable price since everything’s going to cost me more than $125,000.”
According to the magazine, she got her rejection letter on Monday, informing her that New York City is not responsible for her situation.
In his rejection of her claim, Lander said, “We regret to tell you that, according to New York State law and the circumstances of the storm, the City of New York is not legally liable for the damage to your property that occurred when Hurricane Ida slammed New York City on September 1, 2021.”
Jennifer Mooklal, a neighbour of Bhagwandin, has continued to reside in her house despite the flood’s destruction. According to an interview she gave to The City, her first floor and basement were flooded with sewage.
I have nowhere else to go, she added.
For more than a century, courts have ruled that New York governments, including the City of New York, are not responsible for harm caused by “exceptional and severe rainfalls.”
The exception, according to Lander, is where the local authority has engaged in “negligent conduct or omission” that led to the harm.
He instantly rules out the chance that it occurred during the storm however.
That wasn’t the case here, according to Lander.
Bhagwandin and her neighbours’ only option is to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit against the city.
There isn’t much time left for that. Claims against the city must be made within a year and 90 days after the occurrence, as per New York State law.
That means the Ida victims have until November 30 of current year to file a lawsuit.
The New York Times reports that Ramskriet’s second son, who survived, said that the floodwaters were so strong that they knocked his father, Dameshwar, off his feet.
The father attempted to grasp onto his wife, but the intense downpour also carried her away.
Dameshwar Ramskriet said to the Times last year, “I attempted to cling on to my wife, and she was attempting to hold on to me.” But the waves drove me away, and I lost sensation in her hand. The Ramskriets may have been unprepared for the flood for a valid cause.
The night Ida hit, the city didn’t alert people about the impending storm until 7.20 p.m.
Although the city didn’t release the notice of the Flash Flood Emergency until 10.25pm, flash flood warnings were issued for the next hour and a half as the rainfall reached its height shortly before 9pm.
As hurricane season comes once again, Bhagwandin is scared of the next storm.
“We are not equipped to handle a crisis.” She remarked, “We are not prepared for the emergency.
The storm’s power, according to Governor Kathy Hochul and former Mayor Bill de Blasio, caught them off guard.
‘We didn’t realise that the skies would really open up between 8:50 and 9:50 last night and deliver Niagara Falls level water to the streets of New York,’ Hochul added.
De Blasio said that he had received a prediction for 3 to 6 inches of rain on Wednesday.
After the storm passed, de Blasio said, “We’re facing a historic weather event tonight with record-breaking rain throughout the city, terrible flooding, and deadly conditions on our highways.”
State of emergency declarations were made in New York and New Jersey, and the National Weather Service issued the city of New York its first-ever emergency flash flood warning, advising citizens to seek higher ground.
Donovan Richards, the president of Queens Borough, whose area suffered the greatest damage, urged his residents to file a lawsuit.
In a statement to THE CITY, he stated, “This decision—which I urge residents to research their rights regarding—is an awful embodiment of the city’s incompetence and outright ineptitude when it comes to severe weather preparation.”
46 persons lost their life in the Northeast, including 23 in New Jersey alone.
In his letter of rejection, Lander noted that the Department of Environmental Protection of the city had recorded between four and nine inches of rain on the storm’s first night. ‘Breaking the record for the most amount of rain ever recorded in a single hour in New York City,’ he writes, “more than 3.15 inches fell in a single hour in Central Park.”
50-year-old Metodija Mihajlov, whose Manhattan restaurant’s basement was flooded with three inches of water, said, “I’ve never seen that much rain.”
It resembled jungle living and tropical rain, as the saying goes. Unbelievable. This year is really strange,’ he told AFP.
In a different area of Queens, Deborah Torres’ first-floor apartment quickly became submerged to her knees as her landlord frantically pleaded with her neighbours below, among them a baby, to leave, she claimed.
But because the water was coming in so quickly, she assumed they were unable to open the door. Three residents passed away.
I’m at a loss for words, she said. ‘How can anything like this happen?’
Sophy Liu, also of Queens, awakened her kid from bed and placed him in a life jacket and inflatable swimming ring as their first-floor apartment flooded.
She phoned for assistance from friends when she was unable to open the door due to the water’s power. She said that the water was about five feet high when they saved her.
I was clearly terrified, but I had to be brave for my youngster. She said on Thursday as medical examiners retrieved three corpses from a nearby home: “I had to calm him down.
Lander said that he felt bad for the storm’s victims and that global warming was to blame for the destruction.
In his letter of denial, he said that “the City of New York must do more to prepare our neighbourhoods as climate change enhances the volume and frequency of local storms.”
He suggested setting up a “Disaster Recovery Center” in the city to aid with insurance claims, enable legal support, and offer information on relief initiatives.
I’m sorry that such a facility wasn’t available after Hurricane Ida, the man remarked. It is hoped that by building such a facility, it would be feasible to assist future New Yorkers who experience calamities (regardless of whether or not the City is liable for damage).