North Shore Residents Urged To Attend Meeting On Floodgate Plan

GREAT NECK, NY — Emergency management officials in Port Washington and Manhasset are urging North Shore residents to attend a floodgate meeting later this month as at least one proposal could impact low-lying areas.

Following the devastating Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with finding ways to reduce flood risk across New York and New Jersey. The plan aimed to make these areas more resilient to storms and help reduce the economic costs and risks that often come with bad storms, such as hurricanes and nor'easters. The proposals would also help the region deal with flooding that is expected to worsen amid rising sea levels.

In an interim report released in February, federal engineers described several plans to address flood risks across more than 2,150 square miles stretching from the southern tip of the New Jersey coastline all the way north to the Capital region and east into Nassau County. The plans include outer harbor barrier system (Sandy Hook to Breezy Point); two or three barriers, floodwalls and levee systems; single water body barriers, floodwalls and levees; perimeter only; and no action.

A floodgate meeting is planned Thursday, Oct. 24 at 5 p.m. on a floodgate proposal. The engineers group said in a news release it will update stakeholders and the public on study tasks that are underway, including processing preliminary new flood data and considering measures to minimize, avoid or mitigate flooding that could result from the proposals. The meeting will be held at the Inn at Great Neck on Cutter Mill Road.

A half-hour presentation is scheduled, followed by a question-and-answer session.

The Port Washington-Manhasset Office of Emergency Management said the proposal, if followed through as is, could impact low-lying areas, including public spaces and the environment.

"While the pwm oem doesn't take a position, we are concerned," the agency wrote in a Facebook post. "The Army Corps needs to include the communities' concerns and needs in their plans. Please try to attend."

The plan involves two features. First, it would install a combination levee berm and surge gate/barrier system connecting Sandy Hook, New Jersey, across to Breezy Point on the Rockaway peninsula. A similar surge barrier enclosure would be installed along the East River, just west of the Throgs Neck Bridge.

The storm surge barrier would stretch from sea floor to well above sea-level, the Great Neck Record reported. The gate would remain open so boats and fish can pass through, closing when storms approach.

The second part of the project would involve a relatively small embayment — a recess in a coastline that forms a bay — next to Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx along the western Long Island Sound, which would be outside of the surge gates at Sandy Hook-Breezy Point and Throgs Neck.

Tracy Brown, director of the nonprofit Save The Sound, told Patch in a statement the group is concerned that when closed, the Throgs Neck floodgate could flood communities along the Long Island Sound.

"When closed, the proposed floodgate at Throgs Neck will create deflection flooding for the communities on the outside of the gate when storm surges hit," she said. "Even when open, the in-water structures of the gate will narrow that passageway, change tidal patterns and have other impacts on nearby communities that need to be fully understood before any plans are approved and construction begins. We need to weigh the new problems that will be created against the ones we are trying to solve before agreeing to spend billions of taxpayer dollars in the Army Corps proposals."