NEW YORK – New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand lobbied Sunday for $ 33 million in federal funding to update weather warning systems across the state and country, in response to deadly rains and flooding from the debris. Hurricane Ida.
Democratic senators said a network of 126 observation stations in New York, called the mesonet, needs improvements and money for maintenance as climate change makes it difficult to forecast the weather. They are asking for $ 3 million in the next federal budget for the University of Albany, which is home to the New York mesonet.
They are also asking for a federal investment of $ 30 million in the nation’s mesonet system.
At least 50 people from Virginia to Connecticut died when stormwater from Ida’s remains impacted homes and washed away vehicles, overwhelming urban drainage systems that could not bear withstanding so much rain in such a short time.
“What we saw with Hurricane Ida and what we see more and more is that storms change rapidly, varying course, rainfall and other factors, and we need to keep up with all of this in real time,” Schumer said in a statement. .
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