How 21st-Century Storms are Devastating 20th-Century Infrastructure

It is now painfully obvious that New York City was not built for 21st-century storms.  Case in point: on September 1, 2021, as much as 10 inches of rain pounded some areas of NYC.  Hundreds of basements got flooded, and several subway tunnels got inundated as well.  Even worse, 40 people died.

While 10 inches may not sound like enough rain to devastate an urban area, consider that this is more rain than San Jose has received in the past 9 months!  Fifty years ago, this could be dismissed as something that might occur only once a decade.  But in 2021, events like this appear to be trending toward an annual occurrence.

The Path Toward Developing Infrastructure that can Withstand 21st-Century Storms

Determining this proverbial path has been a long time coming.  The U.S. in general has received poor infrastructure report card grades for many years, but it wasn’t until Superstorm Sandy that the urban effects of our nation’s degrading infrastructure started to hit home.  That said, Sandy occurred almost a decade ago (as of the time of this writing), and it’s clear that the $20 million spent to help stormproof the city since then has been woefully inadequate.

One example of the inadequate infrastructure relates to the NYC sewer system.  A whopping 60% of NYC shares the same sewer system, and it can get overwhelmed quickly during heavy rainstorms, especially in flood-prone sections of the city like Queens.   Efforts are underway to better segregate the system, but it’s an extremely slow process.

New York City unfortunately is not alone here.  Many urban areas across the country are ill-equipped to handle 21st-century storms.  Maybe Biden’s infrastructure deal will help, not sure.  But it is obvious that this is an issue that will not resolve itself.  Municipalities, utilities, and all other stakeholders need to take a proactive role to shore things up before it’s too late.