Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a Major Disaster
Declaration request on Sunday so New York can get federal help with recovering
from Ida.
Neena Kurup's home in New Hyde Park had its
basement flooded Wednesday night. The water dried up this weekend, but she says
the damage totals are starting to add up.
"We had so much stuff in here, we never
thought that this would happen," she says.
Kerup and her neighbors around the intersection
of Oxford and Norman streets have never been flooded before and don't have
flood insurance.
Ida was a different kind of storm, dumping so
much water on the area that it overwhelmed local resources and poured into
homes and flooded cars.
Hochul signed a Major Disaster Declaration
request that, if signed by the president, could unlock millions of dollars in
FEMA funds that could help homeowners directly with repairs.
Hochul also announced
that $375 million of previously awarded federal money
will go to immediate infrastructure repairs to prevent climate change related
storms and flooding.
"We will take our teams, our engineer
teams, our damage surveillance teams, and figure out a game plan to use this
money as soon as humanly possible to start fixing the infrastructure,"
Hochul says.
Kerup says the governor's announcement was
welcome news, but adds whatever relief can be
sent her way needs to get to her sooner rather than later.
"Hopefully we'll be able to get something
that we'll be able to use it to get back to normal life," she says.
Hochul has set up a special
website
for homeowners directly impacted by Ida.