Governor Hochul: "Ladies and gentlemen, that is the definition of a climate crisis. We're experiencing a climate crisis as we speak, but more than talking about that, it's a humanitarian crisis. And you only have to walk down this street, as I have many times with our elected officials who care so deeply about the people who live here and throughout Queens and all the other effected communities, to know that people that we represent, who put their faith in us, are in pain right now. They're hurting. They look into our eyes and they ask us to help and we will not abandon them. Every one of us here, our elected leaders down from our President, to our Senators, our Congress members, our Assembly members, our Mayors, everyone, including our Council Members, we are here to help."
Hochul: "I'm so proud to say that we've never seen a response like we've seen from President Biden and his administration and our leadership in the Senate and the House of Representatives. They acted so quickly and as a result we have deployed teams on the ground to get immediate assistance to people, but this is a short-term solution, getting them housing, getting them shelter, getting them rental assistance, giving them money to help clean up, giving them food on the table - and that's what President Biden has enabled us to do to help support those efforts."
Good afternoon. I'm New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, and this is my second week on the job. And my third visit to this street, because we had extraordinary circumstance, which happened just over, less than a week ago. And it's ironic to me because one week ago today, as I saw the path of Hurricane Ida, I called the governors of Mississippi, Louisiana to offer the help from New York. And they were grateful. Little did I know that just one day later, we'd be the ones asking for help, that we would have experienced a cataclysmic weather event of proportions, the likes of which have never been seen in our state, the volume of water that came down in a one-hour period from 8:51 p.m. to 9:51 p.m. last Wednesday night broke all the records, and literally the records had been set 10 days before.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is the definition of a climate crisis. We're experiencing a climate crisis as we speak, but more than talking about that, it's a humanitarian crisis. And you only have to walk down this street, as I have many times with our elected officials who care so deeply about the people who live here and throughout Queens and all the other effected communities, to know that people that we represent, who put their faith in us, are in pain right now. They're hurting. They look into our eyes and they ask us to help and we will not abandon them.
Every one of us here, our elected leaders down from our President, to our Senators, our Congress members, our Assembly members, our Mayors, everyone, including our Council Members, we are here to help.
And I'm so grateful to President Biden for being so responsive. He called me immediately, he had our great FEMA administrator call me, he called again, "what do you need?" And after I used to the emergency declaration in the crisis, we put forth a request for a major disaster declaration.
Now just about 10 years ago, I was a member of Congress. Nine years ago, we had Katrina and those of you who had experienced that understood that it took from October until December, even January before the aid came to our state. People were playing politics with people's lives back then, despite the best efforts of our leaders here.
I'm so proud to say that we've never seen a response like we've seen from President Biden and his administration and our leadership in the Senate and the House of Representatives. They acted so quickly and as a result we have deployed teams on the ground to get immediate assistance to people, but this is a short-term solution, getting them housing, getting them shelter, getting them rental assistance, giving them money to help clean up, giving them food on the table - and that's what President Biden has enabled us to do to help support those efforts.
But my friends, we are in this for the long haul. This is not a situation that's going to go away and the way I operate, I'm acting as if this same event could happen again in 10 more days. That's the preparedness that we need to have so this street, this alleyway does not become a raging river destroying the lives of people, their homes and their futures.
It's an emotional day for all of us to see this, but the chance to see these resilient people, and Junior right here, who's the mayor of the streets, Junior, how are you my friend? Junior is here. Junior is in the house. We are here to help you and mark our words here today, the President and none of us believe that we just show up to take pictures and walk away. We are committed to you and the resiliency of this community and this neighborhood. I want to thank every one of you for having the strength.
I don't know where you get it from, because this is one of the hardest hit streets and communities because of COVID as well. Our hospitals were overflowing with people from these neighborhoods just a year ago. So my friends we're not abandoning you we're here for you and we'll continue to be here when you need us.
And with that, I'm going to give a quick introduction to our Senator, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Who's been on the ground constantly. And I want to thank her for her leadership as well. She'll be introducing Senator Schumer and Senator Schumer just from the bottom of my heart as well. Thank you. We walked many streets.
The three of us walked Mamaroneck, other communities as well. The two of you have just an incredible team and we're blessed to have you representing the state of New York. Thank you.
