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City Starts Preparing for Possible Impact of Hurricane Joaquin

By Katie Honan | September 30, 2015 7:37pm
 Councilman Eric Ulrich was at a test run of
Councilman Eric Ulrich was at a test run of "flood logs" at newly installed baffle walls in Belle Harbor, Queens on Wednesday.
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Councilman Eric Ulrich

ROCKAWAY BEACH — The city is shoring up its coast in the chance that Hurricane Joaquin hits early next week, as some forecasters have warned.

Along the Rockaway peninsula, which was hit especially hard by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the Parks Department is installing "flood logs" — aluminum panels that fit in the openings of baffle walls from Beach 127th to Beach 149th streets.

It is also filling in sand dunes at Beach 44th, 86th, 97th and 106th streets, which had been cut this summer to create access to the beach, a Parks Department spokeswoman said.

The work is in addition to other fortifications that have already been put in place to protect the city's coasts since Hurricane Sandy, according to a spokeswoman for the mayor.

The installed flood panel is designed to block water and sand from rushing down residential streets on the Rockaway peninsula. Blocks without the boardwalk are installed with these walls.(Councilman Eric Ulrich)

"The city has fully updated its emergency preparedness plans and has made major progress implementing its $20 billion resiliency plan — ensuring that the five boroughs are much safer now than three years ago," said Monica Klein, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio.

They've been monitoring the storm with the Office of Emergency Management, the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center, she said. 

► HURRICANE JOAQUIN COULD BE HEADED TO NYC

In Rockaway, the city has built nearly a mile of elevated boardwalk that's designed to be stronger in a storm and 6 miles of dunes, adding 3.5 million cubic yards of sand to the beach. 

But portions of the peninsula awaiting construction of the new boardwalk, including Beach 117 to Beach 126th streets, have only the sand dunes for protection. 

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On Staten Island, Parks officials have drained some of the water from Allison and Willowbrook ponds in anticipation for heavy rain through the weekend, the agency said. 

They've also closed gaps along the beaches where paths had been made to provide access to pedestrians during the summer.

The Parks Department is "closely monitoring the storm" and will adjust its preparations as more details develop, a spokeswoman said.