Extreme Weather Coordinator appointed for New York City
In the wake of Hurricane Ida, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched a “blueprint” for how the city will prepare for and respond to extreme weather.
The city “will plan for the worst-case scenario in every instance,” the report says, meaning earlier warnings, more evacuations, and more travel bans in the lead-up to storms, overseen by an Extreme Weather Coordinator in City Hall. Starting immediately, Deputy Mayor for Administration Emma Wolfe will be the first to serve in the newly created role.
The New Normal: Combatting Storm-Related Extreme Weather in New York City report was prepared by the city’s cross-agency Extreme Weather Response Task Force and external experts. The mayor announced plans to support recommendations including US$2.1 billion in new funding for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and an additional US$400 million for new priority capital projects at other city agencies.
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The emergency management department is in the process of hiring a private weather forecasting vendor, which will provide a “second opinion” on what the city hears from the National Weather Service (NWS), build local forecasting down to the neighbourhood level, and develop custom on-demand forecasts, with access to data and models NWS does not have. De Blasio said the NWS does “good and important work,” but often its reports “were too vague or too late and we need something more urgent.”
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