Helpless before the storm
Coney Island remains unguarded on Sandy’s seven-year anniversary
Brooklynites tour the blanket of discarded fl otsam that follwed after the storm surge that hit Coney Island receded back into the sea.
Photo by Paul Martinka
COURIER LIFE, NOV. 1-7, 2019 3
BY ROSE ADAMS
Flood-prevention infrastructure
in the People’s Playground
remains far from
completion seven years after
Superstorm Sandy devastated
Coney Island, and what safeguards
do exist won’t protect
against a Sandy-sized storm
— leaving residents vulnerable
to fl ooding for years to
come, according to advocates.
“We’re very, very lucky
that we didn’t get hit by a
hurricane this season,” said
Brighton Beach resident and
environmentalist, Ida Sanoff,
who criticized the lack of substantial
fl ood-prevention measures.
“It’s very minimal.”
Since the superstorm
struck the People’s Playground
on Oct. 29, 2012, only
a handful of initiatives included
in a $2 billion resiliency
investment have seen
completion, such as the installation
of back-up generators
at public housing complexes,
the installation of a
tidal barrier at Coney Island
Creek, and the relocation
of Coney Island Hospital’s
critical patient services to
a non-f lood zone, according
to the Mayor’s Office of Resiliency
.
Other projects, including
the protection of subway
yards to protect fl ooding, the
construction of new sewer
lines to improve stormwater
management, and the installation
of electrical lines and
boilers to the roofs of public
housing towers remain ongoing
seven years after the
storm.
“We’re still lacking a regional
protection plan,” said
Councilman Mark Treyger
(D–Coney Island). “I believe
that as a city, we’re better informed
than we were prior to
Sandy, but we’re not fully prepared
yet.”
Major long-term mitigation
efforts to defend against
rising sea levels exist today
as pipe dreams. The US Army
Corp of Engineers proposed
an ambitious multibilliondollar,
miles-long fl oodgate
that would stretch from Jamaica
Bay, through Coney
Island, and out to New Jersey,
but that project remains
in the early design phase and
is at best decades away from
completion, according to a report
by the Army Corps.
Other projects are closer
to completion, such as the upcoming
repairs to the bulkhead
along Coney Island
Creek that was damaged during
Sandy, but those won’t be
fi nished until 2023, and will
only protect against small
storms, not hurricanes the
size of Sandy, according to
representatives at the Economic
Development Corporation,
the agency in charge of
the project.
And as real solutions remain
underfunded and behind
schedule, locals are
demanding the city fund
stop-gap defenses that might
provide some relief against
future fl oods, such as planting
more grass that prevents
beach erosion, adding sand to
the shoreline, and other natural
fi xes.
As things stand today,
however, Coney Island is
more-or-less as vulnerable
to a Sandy-level storm as it
was in 2012, when the storm
caused roughly $19 billion
in property damage in New
York City and claimed 53 lives
throughout the state, and locals
are sick and tired of feeling
like sitting ducks in their
own homes.
“If a storm happened
tomorrow, we’d still get
fl ooded,” said Eddie Mark,
the District Manager of Community
Board 13, which oversees
Sea Gate, Bensonhurst,
Coney Island, and Brighton
Beach. “The people are aware
of what can happen, but they
can only be as prepared as
their go bag.”
Rising waters uprooted many of the boards on Steeplechase Pier.
Photo by Will Bredderman
More than three feet of sand was deposited on W.t 17th Street and the
boardwalk in Coney Island during Sandy. Photo by Paul Martinka