Rockaway, NY – Today, Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens & Brooklyn) and Gregory Meeks (D – Queens) released a report showing major flaws in the City’s Rockaway evacuation plan.  The Rockaway Peninsula is one of the most populous barrier islands in the United States, but the City still hasn’t implemented urgently needed upgrades to its evacuation plan first suggested in 1998. 

            Rockaway is a narrow barrier beach that juts out from Long Island directly into the Atlantic Ocean and which is home to over 100,000 residents.  It’s primary means of access and egress—two narrow bridges--risk becoming choked with cars in the event of an evacuation, and slowing to a crawl.  In 1998, the City Council held hearings on how to improve the Rockaway evacuation plan, but few of the reforms have been implemented. 

ROCKAWAY  EVACUATION PLAN REPORT CARD:

·        Posting of Evacuation Route – Grade: F

Problem: Residents are not familiar with Rockaway evacuation route.

CB 14 Recommendation: Post evacuation routes along well traveled roadways.[i]

City Action: City has failed to post evacuation routes in Rockaway.

·        Installation of Evacuation Siren – Grade: F

Problem: Alerting residents that they should evacuate.   

CB 14 Recommendation: Install evacuation siren.[ii]

City Action: City has failed to install an evacuation siren in Rockaway.

·        Reconfiguration of Evacuation Route – Grade: F

Problem: Nassau County and Far Rockaway evacuation routes cross paths, risking backed up traffic and accidents at worst possible time.

OEM Recommendation: Develop a “common plan” so people fleeing a hurricane do not “run into each other.”[iii]

City Action: None.  Nassau and Rockaway evacuation routes still cross, and there are no plans to correct the problem.

·        Publication of Evacuation Plan – Grade: D

Problem: Residents are not familiar with Rockaway evacuation route.

OEM Recommendation: Print “hundreds and hundreds” of copies of evacuation plan and “have meetings with groups that distribute the plan.”[iv]

City Action: OEM has dramatically improved their website to provide evacuation information, but only to those who have internet access and retain power during a storm. The agency has also made citywide information available.  However, the agency has not attended any Rockaway community meetings since 1999, and did not distribute any Rockaway specific information in connection with ‘Isabel’.  The 100^th Precinct distributed some evacuation route information, but did so without the OEM’s assistance or knowledge.

·        Answering Questions About Evacuation Plan – Grade: D

Problem: Residents don’t know where to ask questions about evacuation plan.

CB 14 Recommendation: Establish a “better communication system” with the community.[v]

City Action: City has established citywide 3-1-1 program to provide information, as well as the web site, but has not attended community meetings in Rockaway for four years, and distributed no materials on Rockaway prior to Isabel. 

·        Evacuation Plan for Elderly and Disabled -- Grade: D

Problem: Difficulty of evacuating Rockaway’s high % of elderly and disabled.

OEM Recommendation:  “Special consideration” be paid to these populations by evacuation planners.[vi]

City Action: Few special steps were taken with regards to seniors and disabled not living in nursing homes or hospitals.  OEM called local nursing homes and hospitals to remind them to check to make sure their generators were working and that they had enough medical supplies, and provided general information to senior centers.

·        Installation of Tidal Gauges – Grade: A

Problem: Tidal gauges assist authorities in ascertaining water levels, but Rockaway had none in 1998. 

OEM Recommendation: Install tidal gauges in Jamaica Bay.[vii]

City Action: OEM has installed tidal gauges in Jamaica Bay inlet and Inwood.

·        Rescue Equipment on Rockaway – Grade: Incomplete

Problem: Bringing rescue equipment to Rockaway during a hurricane would be logistical nightmare. 

CB 14 Recommendation: Station rescue equipment “on the peninsula and on Broad Channel.”[viii]

City Action: Unknown.  OEM will not disclose whether emergency equipment is stationed on Rockaway, and if so, where.

Rockaway is home to over 100,000 residents, some of the City’s most popular beaches and cherished beach front property.  Bounded on two sides by water—Jamaica Bay on the north and the Atlantic Ocean on the south—Rockaway’s primary access to the mainland is via two narrow bridges, the Gill Hodges Memorial Bridge and the Cross Bay Bridge, as well as the Nassau Expressway. 

Hurricane Isabel caused millions of dollars in property damage and more than 4.4 million people to lose power, grounded thousands of planes, and took the lives of at least 38 people.  North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware have been declared national disaster areas.  Fortunately, a storm track that looked like ‘Isabel’ might hit New York City head-on instead drifted south west. 

In the wake of the near miss, staff of Reps. Weiner and Meeks reviewed hundreds of pages of transcripts from New York City Council Committee on Transportation hearings held in April of 1998 regarding the Rockaway evacuation plan.  At the hearing, experts including the then Director of the Office of Emergency Management Jerome Hauer and Queens Community Board 14 District Manager Jonathan Gaska made several recommendations for reform, but Weiner/Meeks’ review shows that almost none of those recommendations have been implemented.

Today, Weiner and Meeks released the results of his review, and called on OEM Director John Odermatt to implement an immediate overhaul of the Rockaway’s evacuation plan. 

“While the City has made some improvements, it’s failure to overhaul our evacuation plan has cast an ominous cloud over the Rockaway peninsula,” said Rep. Weiner.  “Isabel may have passed us by, but that doesn’t mean the next monster hurricane will.  We must get much better prepared.”

"The tremendous devastation caused by Hurricane Isabel fortunately missed the Rockaway peninsula, and I am very thankful," said Rep. Meeks.  "However, next time we might not be so lucky.  The City must begin to put the proper mechanisms in place to effectively respond during natural disasters so that public safety will not be jeopardized on the Rockaway peninsula."