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FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.couriersun.com JANUARY 9, 2014 • The Courier SUN 11 superstorm sandy SANDY TRACKER lets you FOLLOW THE MONEY BY MAGGIE HAYES mhayes@queenscourier.com Sandy recovery money is now under close inspection, and one Queens pol wants accountability for every dollar moving forward. In November, Councilmember Donovan Richards introduced a bill that would track all funds related to superstorm recovery via an online database. Before former Mayor Michael Bloomberg bid adieu to City Hall in late December, he signed the bill into law, along with 21 others. It will take effect in late March. Richards said new Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration will carry out the bill as it was intended, making sure local jobs are created and devastated areas are rebuilt stronger than before. “De Blasio spent a lot of time with us during the storm, helping and bringing out supplies,” Richards said. “It’s not like we have to convince him we have a need.” The Workforce Center recently opened in the Far Rockaway Queens Library branch is also equipped to prepare local residents for the rebuilding job opportunities. “These things all tie into what we want to do,” Richards said. “Twenty billion dollars is going to come through New York City over the next few years. We want to make sure it’s distributed equally.” The Sandy Funding Tracker provides a funding summary, which gives an overview of all recovery money by funding type and funding details, broken down by borough and individual. “You can see where this money is and where it’s going,” Richards said. In addition to tracking federal funding, all contractors doing work locally are required to disclose everything from the wages they pay workers to the area from which they hire these workers. This is meant to encourage contractors to fulfill local hiring mandates. The tracker also provides detailed information about projects and programs in each major category of disaster relief funds, such as Build it Back, the city-sponsored recovery program. For more information and to see the website’s progress thus far, visit www1.nyc.gov/sandytracker. The website will continually be updated once the law goes into effect. Gov, VP outline storm prep BY CRI STABELLE TUMOLA ctumola@queenscourier.com As temperatures plummeted in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a heated speech outlining plans to build a new weather detection system, seal subways from floods and deputize citizens as emergency responders in the ongoing fight against extreme weather. “We are reimagining New York for a new reality because we are facing a new New York after what we went through,” Cuomo said during the Tuesday, January 7 announcement. “Extreme weather is the new reality, like it or not.” The governor was joined by Vice President Joe Biden, who, Cuomo said, represented the federal government’s support in the state’s efforts to recover from Superstorm Sandy last year. “None of it would have been possible if we didn’t have the funding from the federal government,” Cuomo said. Cuomo’s $17 billion plan included a more sophisticated weather detection system, with more stations throughout the state. He also outlined the first massive reconstruction of the city’s subway system since it was created more than 100 years ago, with better protection of train yards. He said the state was looking into experimental seals to stop water from entering subway openings. The energy system also showed vulnerability during Sandy, he said, prompting an urgency to raise substations out of flood zones, particularly on Long Island, and for critical underground lines to be strengthened. Cuomo emphasized restoring coastal protection Photo courtesy of Governo Cuomo’s Flickr page Governor Andrew Cuomo discuses the state’s ongoing storm mitigation and recovery efforts with Vice President Joe Biden. through natural green infrastructure by “replacing what Mother Nature had there in the first place.” “We need to revisit how we design homes near the coast, and other flood zones, and consider building structures on stilts,” the governor said. Following the fuel crisis during Sandy, backup generators were mandated downstate and New York became the first state to establish a strategic fuel reserve, which is now on Long Island. Both those initiatives will be extended statewide, Cuomo said. The governor said he wanted the state’s emergency responders and its citizens to be prepared for the next storm by establishing the first-ever statewide training program for emergency personnel and the country’s first college for emergency preparedness. The state is also going to create a “Citizen First Responder Corps,” with the goal of training 100,000 New Yorkers for “what to do in case of an emergency,” he said. 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