Brooks-Powers describes July 25 Far Rockaway fire and scattered response
Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers thanks the Chair and Speaker for convening the hearing and notes increasing weather events affecting coastal communities. She describes the July 25 incident in Far Rockaway, where two people died and families were displaced while a major Bronx fire also strained resources.
Thank you so much, Chair Areola, and I will keep it brief so that we can get into the heart of the questions.
I'd like to first thank you, Chair, as well as the Speaker, for quickly responding to the needs of my community and convening an important hearing such as this.
As New York has seen much more regularly, there have been a number of weather events that have been happening, impacting communities, particularly coastal communities that have always been frontline, but even more inland.
And what sparked this particular request was the July 25th incident that happened where we saw two deaths.
We had a number of families that were impacted, and the response felt very scattered and the resources very bare.
And at that...
Time there was also a massive fire happening in the Bronx.
And while we don't control when emergencies happen and where they happen, it
raised the concern once again in terms of what type of resources exist for geographically isolated communities such as the Rockaways.