PHOTO: The Chinese Planning Council hosted a Flushing Climate Meeting on how to prepare for future threats, including coastal and storm flooding. Credit: Lillit Genovesi/NYSG

Contact:

Lillit (Lilli) Genovesi, Long Island Sound Outreach Coordinator, NYC, E: Lillit.Genovesi@cornell.edu, P: (718) 595-3954

NYSG and partners’ outreach to local communities includes access to science-based expertise and resources to better address potentially deadly climate-related challenges

Queens, NY, March 23, 2023 - Recent storms have devastated Flushing, a coastal community in Queens. In September 2021, a deadly storm took the lives of three residents found in a flooded basement apartment. Thousands of other community members experienced damage to their homes and properties. Many residents have not been equipped to receive emergency notifications and did not have evacuation plans.

In 2022, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) joined community members, elected officials, scientists, and emergency management personnel at a Flushing Climate Meeting to share information on the science of climate change and where and how to prepare for flooding emergencies. Columbia University scientists shared climate change information; agencies shared resources for the community; and elected officials answered questions from community members.

Nearly 50 community residents attended the meeting to learn about local flood predictions, emergency shelters, and participatory science opportunities. Meeting materials and information were translated to Mandarin for attendees from our new partner organizations: the Chinese Planning Council, the Flushing Food Collaborative, and the Free Synagogue of Flushing. Participants received information packets, joined email lists, asked questions, and expressed gratitude for the presentations on preparing for flooding and other climate emergencies and the emergency preparedness kits that were distributed. During the Town Hall meeting, a few weeks later, the City of New York announced that it would be taking steps to further address and understand the flooding impacts and risks in the neighborhood. Those attending the meetings included New York State Senator John Liu, and representatives of U.S. Representative Grace Meng and New York City Council Member Sandra Ung.

NYSG’s community outreach and science-based education in collaboration with diverse partners is helping communities that have experienced tragic losses to flooding to be better equipped to tackle climate change challenges.

Partners:

• Long Island Sound Study 
• Chinese Planning Council
• Columbia University Earth Institute’s Center for Climate Systems Research
• New York City Emergency Management
• New York City Department of Environmental Protection
• Queens Botanical Garden
• Kissena Synergy
• Flushing Free Synagogue
• Flushing Food Collaborative

Funding: 

• Long Island Sound Study 
• Columbia University Earth Institute’s Center for Climate Systems Research 
• New York City Emergency Management


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.