The city has begun setting up temporary plastic flood barriers and sandbags across select streets in lower Manhattan to protect the area from flooding as Tropical Storm Isaias approaches New York.
“We aren’t taking any chances at all and for everyone that lived through Hurricane Sandy you will remember that we got a lot more than we bargained for,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said during his Monday briefing at City Hall.
Workers began placing tiger dams, a series of interlocking plastic tubes that drain water, and stacking bags early Aug. 2 from South Street Seaport to Wall Street to Catherine Slip to Water Street. The roughly mile-long barricade will be finished by Monday evening, said Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell, who joined the mayor for his daily press conference.
“We don’t think that we are going to see severe impacts from this storm, but in an overabundance of caution, we are putting several pieces in place,” Criswell told reporters.
Criswell added that the city’s Emergency Management team will deploy personnel across the five boroughs to assess street conditions and coordinate resources as needed during the storm with a special focus on FDR Drive, Belt Parkway, Cross Island Parkway and numerous Staten Island roadways which are especially at risk of flooding.
But the area of most concern for this storm is the South Street Seaport area, Criswell said.
New Yorkers should expect to see some rain beginning on or about midnight tonight, with the bulk of the rain to come between 1 and 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4.
