Queens Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-27th) challenged the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to personally visit flood victims in his Southeast Queens district. For the past 50 years, whenever a heavy rain hit, residents have headed to their basements – buckets in hand – and Comrie said, enough is enough.

Comrie said the recent torrential rainstorms that hit New York in late July and early August “wrecked havoc on the community, and people were forced to undergo the distressing process of waiting for flood waters to recede.”

He added that residents were participating in the annual practice of placing their destroyed mementos and belongings on the curb.

The veteran lawmaker, in his assessment, noted that hundreds of homeowners and local businesses suffered not only damage to their property, but also faced health risks with the formation of mold in their homes.

“It is my belief that while the city has to make some much-needed improvements to their strategic approach to cleaning catch basins, the reality is that our local government is fiscally unable to address the totality of the problem,” Comrie stressed, adding, “There must be a federal component to creating a solution for this problem, which is shamefully decades old – and I am urging FEMA to visit this community.”

And they did!

On August 17, representatives of FEMA and the New York Office of Emergency Management (OEM) conducted a tour of Southern Queens to survey the damage that the recent floods had caused.

The two-man team, accompanied by elected officials such as Comrie, Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-29th District) and representatives of State Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-14th District) and State Senator Shirley Huntley (D-10th District). In St. Albans, they visited the homes of Lee Bostic, Frank Mock and former Councilman Archie Spigner. They also ventured to Hollis, where they talked to Sahadeo Bhagwadin, who informed them that the recent floods caused some $50,000 worth of damage to his home.

“While the FEMA visit is encouraging, I want to caution homeowners to continue to seek other avenues of relief during this crisis,” Comrie said. “They need to file insurance claims with their carriers and file water damage property claims with the office of the comptroller,” he added.

Comrie is also requesting that the NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) consider establishing a disaster recovery center in the Southeast Queens community as they have done in Bay Ridge. “Given the considerable distance that residents of Southeast Queens would have to travel in order to reach the recovery center in Brooklyn, I believe it prudent that OEM establish a center in each borough,” he stated.

Calls to FEMA and OEM were not returned by press time.