InfrastructureCuomo: New York infrastructure must be made more resilient in face of climate challenge

New York governor Andrew Cuomo says global warming l is a serious threat and that all levels of government must work together to design a more resilient infrastructure to deal with the changing weather.

Last Friday heavy rains led to flooding in a number of counties in upstate New York, and Cuomo says that this will become a regular occurrence.

“It’s going to happen again,” Cuomo told reporters following a ribbon cutting at the new Keene Fire House, a replacement for the building that was washed away in 2011 by Tropical Storm Irene. “We have to start changing the infrastructure.”

Poststarnotes that in the last three years, the Cuomo’s administration had to deal with Hurricane Lee, Sandy, and various floods, including last Friday’s

The Johnsburg Highway Department spent most of Saturday trying to reopen the town’s battered road system. Due to the flood, Highway Superintendent Dan Hitchcock said any previously planned paving projects for this year are now in jeopardy, even with the $315,000 in state aid the department received earlier this year.

“When people asked me today if I’m going to repave, I just looked at them and laughed,” Hitchcock said of the dozen roads damaged during Friday’s townwide floods.

For Hitchcock, filling out paperwork for FEMA aid is becoming a routine process.

“This would be the fourth time in five years,” Hitchcock told Poststar.

Flood water damaged Herkimer County so badly that Cuomo declared the county a disaster area, potentially opening up federal and state emergency aid.

Cuomo is now pushing for local governments to spend more money on local roads and infrastructure, but most county public works departments often cut road improvements as a result of the rising costs of employee benefits and mandated services.

Warren County and Washington County Public Works department chiefs made a significant push last year to gain more funding for paving and construction projects, but failed.

“I understand budgets are tight, but we can’t be short-sighted either,” Cuomo told reporters, adding that people too often “politicize” climate change while avoiding the supporting hard science. “Ocean temperatures are rising and we’re feeling it here in New York State.” He added: “This whole challenge of extreme weather isn’t something we’ve ever been through before.”