Bloomberg: Rebuilding Efforts Making NYC More Resilient To Future Storms
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg said New York City is now more able to withstand the kind of surging sea waters and strong winds that Superstorm Sandy brought one year ago.
Speaking Tuesday on Coney Island, Bloomberg said the city has "made an enormous amount of progress" over the past year.
Bloomberg: Rebuilding Efforts Making NYC More Resilient To Future Storms
"If another storm like Sandy ever approaches our shores, it will find a far different city from the one that Sandy left behind," he said.
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Bloomberg said the city "has experienced great catastrophes before'' but that every time, New York has "come back stronger than ever.''
He said the rebuilding efforts are making the city more resilient to a broad range of weather events.
On Staten Island, a 2,000 foot long berm is going in at Crescent Beach.
In the Rockaways, the city intensified efforts on a bulkhead rehab project that was under way before the storm hit, with 25 tidal gates to be installed by end of 2015.
On Coney Island, officials said 600,000 cubic yards of sand has been replenished and other efforts are in the works to help reduce future flooding.
"As we continue working to help families recover from Hurricane Sandy, we're also working to make New York climate-ready so we can protect our most vulnerable communities and strengthen our economic future for generations to come," Bloomberg said.
Coney Island's famous beach and boardwalk disappeared under the surge during Sandy. Many homes and businesses suffered extensive flood damage.
Sandy's surge also damaged the Wildlife Conservation Society's New York Aquarium, which partially reopened back in May. The aquarium's main exhibits are now back up and running after $10 million in repairs. Officials hope it will be fully functioning by 2016.
"We are slowly but surely rebuilding the remainder of the aquarium that was completely devastated in the storm and I do believe that at the end of the day, we're going to have a beautiful, new facility here that is going to be the pride of New York City," Jon Dohlin, director of the aquarium, told 1010 WINS.
Elsewhere on Coney Island, a mural on the boardwalk honors the spirit of the Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach and Seagate communities. It features hundreds of hand-crafted ceramic tiles.
The artwork was created as a form of art therapy by a senior citizen affected by the storm and organized by the JASA Senior Alliance Senior Center and The Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island.
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