September 19, 2022
Albany, NY

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Support Following Devastating Flooding Caused by Hurricane Fiona

100 New York State Troopers Will Be Sent to Puerto Rico To Support Relief Efforts

State Agencies, New York's Building Trades, Private Sector Businesses and Community-Based Organizations Ready to Assist as Puerto Rico Experiences Tropical Storm Conditions and One Million Residents are Without Power

Potential for Life-Threatening and Catastrophic Flooding Continues in Southern and Eastern Parts of the Island in Worst Storm To Impact Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria in 2017

Governor Hochul Remains in Contact with Puerto Rico Governor, Dominican Republic President, and Offers Full Support of State Agencies with Emergency Response Assets

Governor Hochul: "We will be there for the long term recovery. We know from the Maria experience, this is not fixed in a day or week or a month. It takes a sustained concerted approach, and we have experience with our own hurricanes now... It is that ability to mobilize, bring in private sector assets, team them up with our assets and to work continuously with them to restore the grid."

Hochul: "We've seen how challenges like this bring out the best in people. No one works harder at helping others than New Yorkers. And so I'm really proud that we can be there to assist, not just Puerto Rico, but the Dominican Republic, should they need it."

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced New York State actions to support Puerto Rico in the wake of devastating flooding and winds caused by Hurricane Fiona, the worst storm to hit the island since Hurricane Maria in 2017. Following a call with Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi, Governor Hochul directed the New York State Police to send 50 Troopers to assist with keeping residents safe, and 50 additional Troopers will be deployed in the coming weeks. The Governor also announced that the state has been working with Delta, JetBlue, Coca-Cola, New York State's Building Trades, the Greater New York Hospital Association, and SOMOS Community Care, who have all pledged their support for response and recovery efforts. Additionally, teams from the New York Power Authority are ready to deploy and assist in restoring power to the Island.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

Good morning, everyone. I apologize for a brief delay, but we are getting up-to-the-minute information from the Island of Puerto Rico on their situation. So, I wanted to make sure we have everything current here. Anytime we talk about a crisis situation, a disaster, a weather event, I have the dream team involved here. And that'd be our Commissioner of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Jackie Bray. Well-seasoned in every kind of cataclysmic event, so great to have you here in New York State. Kathryn Garcia, the Director of State Operations, once again is also, you know, the two of them and all of us working through the weekend to make sure that we're responding to the needs of people in many parts of our state, as well as Puerto Rico. Very pleased to be joined by our Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez.

Many of our staff members, our team, part of our administration who have family members back in Puerto Rico are under stress, are anxious about their wellbeing, which is why we wanted to do this briefing because we know there's so many residents of New York City and New York State who have close family connections. You know, they either came from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, two areas that are being hit right now by a hurricane, and we want to make sure that people know we are being very responsive. Also want to just send my gratitude to the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican and Hispanic Task Force. They have been so engaged with our team throughout the weekend, especially Chairwoman Maritza Davila. They're ready to help. They're there partnering with us, and I want to tell them how grateful I am for what they're doing as well.

So basically, it's not an unknown fact, we have a long history, long connection with the people of Puerto Rico, and I'm very proud to be the Governor of a state with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in our nation. And when you think about the people who came here in search of the American Dream, like many of our forefathers, foremothers, they've really created the vibrant city that we have here today. And that's why we feel that when they're in need, we have to be able to be able to reach a handout and offer assistance in any way possible. So once again, over the last 24 hours, the Island of Puerto Rico has had to endure destruction of the hands of Mother Nature. It's reminiscent of five years ago when we were all just shocked by the scale of devastation on the island. And the images are still very vivid, and they're starting to emerge this time around from Puerto Rico. And it seems we've been there before, and it is not a good outcome. I know people want to hear about the well-being of their friends and family. And I want to assure them that again, New York State will do everything in our power to help them. And we've always been there for each other, but now is when they need us the most.

Fiona is the largest storm to hit since Maria in 2017. And Puerto Rico has sustained significant damage - we'll have an update on that in a few minutes. But basically, the winds are up to 85 miles an hour. Sometimes sustained at that level, sustained in some areas at a hundred miles an hour, and roughly 12 to 18 inches of rain over a very short time. And some areas that even saw 30. But while the wind has died down, and that is good, the rain continues to fall and is going to be falling throughout the day and well into the night. And so, the island is drenched. And because of this heavy volume, the National Weather Service predicts that there will be catastrophic flooding that'll occur over the next three days, with potential for landslides and mudslides, particularly in the southern and eastern portions of Puerto Rico, an area that is always vulnerable, and has been hit by earthquakes and storms before, tropical storms, hurricanes.

And once again, the critical infrastructure has been damaged and washed away, and those are roads, those are bridges, especially in the rural mountain areas. I was there not long ago and had a chance to see the rebuilding that's still going on after Maria, trying to create connections and sustainable power lines. But, once again, they're being swept away. So we now have over a million people without power. I think 100,000 have been restored in San Juan. but most of the island is without power. FEMA's on the ground, and thank God we have a president who's taking a strong approach to this enlisting all his resources, President Biden, and he's been incredibly responsive. And he knows because of our relationship that New York is there as well.

So yesterday, I spoke to the Governor, we had a lot of communication back and forth. I let him know, Pierluisi, I've offered our support. In fact, I saw him recently in person before this hit. And so, we have a good relationship. And what he conveyed to me, I said, "You tell us what you need. Tell us what you need." The first thing he said he needed, it was interesting. He wanted to know if we could send Spanish-speaking police officers to help respond to the needs of citizens, traffic and lifting up and helping remove barriers on the streets. But they wanted people that were trained in law enforcement.

So, I'm proud to announce, after that call last night, we immediately deployed - started to activate police officers. We'll have over 100 Troopers from this New York State Police Department on their way to Puerto Rico over this next. And as the need continues to arise, we'll be ready to offer other resources and support. So, what we've already done in a proactive way was reach out to corporate partners, good citizens in our not-for-profit community to coordinate donations of water, sanitary supplies, baby formula. And I'm pleased to say thus far, Delta, JetBlue, Coca-Cola have pledged their support. And we are contacting many other organizations. Literally, as we speak, my team is on the phone right now, just lining up the resources so we can get them down there with the support of our hometown airlines here. SOMOS, the Red Cross, Greater New York Hospital Association are sending medical supplies, so we've got that commitment. And the Building Trades will be supporting our rebuilding efforts as well.

So, I just want everybody to know we're also focusing on the power grid. I've already spoken to, last night, to one of our team meetings with Justin Driscoll, the Head of the Power Authority in New York State, and they're prepared to assist in storing the grid. But most importantly, here's the message: We will be there for the long term recovery. We know from the Maria experience, this is not fixed in a day or week or a month. It takes a sustained concerted approach, and we have experience with our own hurricanes now. I hate to say it but, wasn't that long ago, my first week on the job last year when we were hit not with one, but two hurricanes. So, we are more experienced in hurricanes than we ever thought we'd be. But again, it is that ability to mobilize, bring in private sector assets, team them up with our assets and to work continuously with them to restore the grid.

And also, you know, we've helped Puerto Rico. We've weighed on helping them secure millions and billions of dollars to help them with the critical energy infrastructure. And we've helped with assessments and their power plants. I went and visited them in person to help improve the reliability so they're not always so vulnerable every time a storm hits, where we can establish microgrids and other ways to not have one concentrated energy source go down and then the island goes down. So, we helped the company there develop their integrated resource plan and shift to less fossil-dependent grids as well because as happened last time, when ships couldn't get through, they couldn't have the fueling needed to power even the most basic vehicles. So, that was a vulnerability last time. And again, this time, we are hoping that the road that was paved to this point will lend itself to a better response and a less long term impact. But we don't know just yet of how resilient all those measures are and whether they're going to be operationalized in a way that's very good. So basically, the storm is not over yet. We are on track to watch the storm very closely, but also the Dominican Republic. It is in an exposed way. They're being battered as we speak and the center of Fiona will persist over eastern Dominican Republic this afternoon with heavy rain.

This will be again, flash flooding, urban flooding in the eastern portion. So, I spoke to the President, Abinader, last night, the President of Dominican Republic, along with Congressman Espaillat. We got on a call together, and I said, "What do you need Mr. President?" And he asked for something that we are preparing to deliver as we speak - and that is drones. He said, we don't have drones to be able to survey the damage and find where resources are needed the most. So, we will provide them. That is being undertaken as well. So, we know how bad this can get. We've seen how challenges like this bring out the best in people. No one works harder at helping others than New Yorkers. And so I'm really proud that we can be there to assist, not just Puerto Rico, but the Dominican Republic, should they need it.

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