MIDLAND BEACH — Two years after Hurricane Sandy ripped through New York, devastating Staten Island and other waterfront areas, Mayor Bill de Blasio stood with other elected officials to tout the progress on recovery work around the city.
Under the city's Build it Back program, 762 homes have currently begun construction, 1,500 started designs, and 1,090 people received reimbursement checks, de Blasio said.
The city is on track to see 1,000 construction starts and distribute 1,500 checks by the end of the year, he said.
Residents had previously criticized the federally-funded Build it Back recovery program for being mismanaged and slow to act. As late as March, the city had not rebuilt or repaired one single-family home with the nearly $700 million allocated to the program.
Despite the setbacks, de Blasio said on Wednesday that the city has made much progress on recovery, and added that he expects it to continue.
"We are now safer than we were two years ago and we have a lot more to do," de Blasio said.
He also highlighted resiliency measures like over $400 million to build armored levees and other protective infrastructure around Staten Island's East Shore to reduce future risk.
"There will be more storms, they'll be some very big storms in the future, but we'll be ready for them," de Blasio said. "We'll be ready in every way, we'll be ready to communicate with our people."
While the city has added 4.15 million cubic yards of sand onto city beaches to shore them up against future storms in the short term, they're also focused on long-term measures to improve resiliency efforts, he said.
Those long-term efforts include expanding Staten Island's wetlands restoration project — dubbed the Bluebelt program — as well as storm-proofing upgrades to Staten Island University Hospital.
Borough President James Oddo thanked the city and the state for their work on recovery, but said there is still much work to be done.
"We have to do more, we have to be better," Oddo said. "Thank you for all of the work you've done."
