In an article published yesterday by the New York Post, “‘I blame the Mayor’: Residents Fume at de Blasio, AOC over Flood,” residents from Queens lashed out at their elected representatives over the lack of warnings issued prior to the Hurricane Ida, by then a tropical depression which devastated the entire city over Sept. 2. A resident from the Woodside section of Queens, Danette Rivera, whose illegal basement apartment was flooded by the storm, told the Post that, “There was absolutely no warning. I wasn’t expecting water from my own drain to be the one that’s going to kill me.” Rivera continued, “I don’t blame climate change, I blame the Mayor.” Rivera’s neighbor, Julia Nieves, a retired 77-year-old betting clerk, complained about the horrid lack of maintenance of the city’s ancient sewer system, saying, “The catch basins don’t get cleaned often enough. The last time I saw them cleaned was five years ago.”
In a joint press conference in Queens held by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC), Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, where floodwaters had reached up to 12 feet in some sections, angered residents called out the officials for their lack of preparedness and concern for their constituents and poor communities. Instead of fixating on climate change, people are asking why officials haven’t done anything to repair the city’s broken-down infrastructure, and have ignored the illegal housing conditions which no human being should ever live in. “How come you’re not in this community? You don’t give a shit,” a schoolteacher shouted at Ocasio-Cortez.
