RED HOOK — City officials will return to Red Hook next month to offer an update on a system that could provide flood protection to the waterfront neighborhood.
The public meeting will be held Thursday, April 7 at the Miccio Center, located at 110 West 9th St. at 6:30 p.m.
In January, officials from the city's Economic Development Corporation and the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency hosted the first meeting on the "integrated flood protection system," planned as a series of permanent and deployable features that would reduce the risk of coastal flooding in Red Hook.
Features like a sea wall, deployable gates, pumps or raised streets have been suggested but not yet chosen.
The proposed project currently has $100 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] and from the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]. Those funds will go toward the design, environmental review and construction of the project.
Hurricane Sandy battered Red Hook in 2012 and left almost the entire neighborhood submerged under several feet of water. Thousands of residents, including public housing tenants, were left without power or heat for days to months. Three sides of the neighborhood face waterways: The Gowanus Canal, New York Harbor and the Buttermilk Channel.
Temporary boilers are still in use at New York City Housing Authority's [NYCHA] Red Hook Houses after its permanent ones were irreparably damaged in the storm. A separate FEMA-funded project that's underway could involve building power plants at the NYCHA development.
At the Jan. 22 meeting, residents were asked to list their priorities for city officials to keep in mind while designing the flood protection system in Red Hook. Dozens of locals urged the city to maintain, and possibly enhance, access to the waterfront.
Officials at that meeting said they would return to the neighborhood in the spring with a preliminary evaluation.
The flood protection system is currently undergoing a feasibility study that will continue until October.
