Governor Andrew Cuomo has declared a state of emergency in response to the Lake Ontario shoreline flooding brought on by Sunday’s high winds.
The governor spoke outside the Robach Community Center on the lake shore in Charlotte, after visiting several of the flooded properties and talking with homeowners. Cuomo says the emergency declaration lets him move 300 National Guard troops into the area to fill sandbags and work on shoreline protection. It also allows emergency supplies to be made ready. Cuomo says that means rescue boats, 4 wheel drives, pumps and emergency generators.
The governor says New York also has to be proactive, not just respond to one emergency after another. He says a Lake Ontario Response Team is being appointed. It will have representatives of the National Guard, Homeland Security, the DEC, State Police and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. It will coordinate use of state supplied pumps, generators, hoses and rescue boats.
Cuomo says the team it will also look at where sand dunes and breakwaters can be built to protect lakeshore homes and businesses from incoming waves. He says the state will then push to get them built.
Finally, the governor says he doesn’t buy the International Joint Commission’s statement that it can’t release much water through the St. Lawrence River Dam at Massena to lower Lake Ontario. The IJC says the entire St. Lawrence river is also near flooding from the same high rains — 9.61 inches since March first. The governor says New York doesn’t have a voice on the IJC, but he’s pushing the state’s congressional delegation to apply pressure on New York’s behalf.