On September 3rd, 2021, Rebuild by Design Director, Amy Chester, wrote an opinion piece on Daily News titled, “Keeping NYC’s Head Above Water: Lessons from the Deluge.” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article.

Waking up to Thursday morning’s scenes of flooding and destruction was a shock to everyone, — including me, and I’ve spent more than 15 years working on climate change in New York City. Within the span of 13 days, we twice surpassed the record for the single biggest rainfall in a single hour in the history of New York City.

New Yorkers should not feel alone as we try to make sense of what occurred. Our mayor used words like “suddenness” and “brutality” to describe the destruction that a few inches of water had on our infrastructure. Yet until we prioritize comprehensive climate planning, we will continue to see needless deaths from weather events, disruptions to our livelihoods, and significant costs for recovery.

Read the full article here.

Photo credits: Spencer Platt/Getty Images