With fresh memories of the damage wrought by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, New York City officials deployed custodial staff to stay overnight at 250 public schools deemed at risk for flooding to monitor the nor’easter that blew through the region early Tuesday.
While New York City was under a flash flood watch -- where conditions are possible for flooding -- Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the efforts of the Department of Education custodial staff “who went the extra mile in the last 24 hours,” he said at his press briefing Tuesday. “Our custodial staff stayed overnight to make sure there were no problems. Thankfully, all those schools open fully without any difficulty today.”
It was not immediately clear which schools had staffing overnight -- the DOE said many of the 250 schools were previously affected by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which came through New York City on September 1st, just as preparations for the first day of public school were underway.
About 234 schools were affected by the deluge of rainfall from Ida, with reports of minor damage and flooding, the DOE said. All were able to open for the first day of school on September 13th.
A spokesperson for the DOE said that the department works with the Office of Emergency Management before every extreme weather forecast to prepare school buildings.
“Our fantastic facilities staff are on the front line every day making sure our City’s young people have safe, secure places to learn, including overnight if needed. Before every extreme weather event they prepare buildings, monitor the impact of the storm, and if there is any damage, put in incredible work to quickly get buildings back online and ready to fully serve students,” said Nathaniel Styer of the DOE in a statement Tuesday.
Staff can be deployed to stay overnight at school buildings “in order to quickly respond to damages and get repairs underway immediately,” Styer said.
It was not immediately clear what the extent of damage from Monday’s rainfall was. Styer said only “a minimal amount of buildings were impacted and minor flooding was addressed immediately with limited or no impact on school operations.”
The DOE employees who were asked to stay at the schools included custodial engineers, cleaners and other staff.
“It's not unusual for our members to step up and do what they have to do to protect the schools,” said Shirley Aldebol, executive vice president of 32BJ’s schools division which represents cleaners. “They care about their jobs and they care about the schools that they maintain and they care about the students and the teachers and everybody that works in the school.”
Rainfall across the city was measured from just over 2 inches to 4.73 inches on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, the rain has given way to strong winds, with gusts ranging from 35 to 40 mph.
