Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on Fox 5's "The 5 O'Clock News"

July 31, 2025

Bianca Peters: Joining us now by phone is Mayor Eric Adams, who's declared a state of emergency for New York City. Mayor, we saw some of these images coming out of the Clearview Expressway. One of the drivers had to be rescued off the top of his semi-truck. 

Are you talking about those flood watch and travel advisory warnings going out around 2 p.m.? Do you think that was enough time for New Yorkers to avoid some of these hazardous conditions before they got in the roadways?

Mayor Eric Adams: We hope so, but as you stated, the Clearview Expressway, areas of Staten Island, all areas where it is below grade, you have the potential of flooding and dangerous conditions. And when you look at someone on top of an SUV, it just tells you how high the water can actually reach. And that's why we have FDNY high water units that are out in Queens, and we're gonna deploy them where it's needed.

Natasha Verma: Mayor Adams, I feel like these storms just get stronger and more powerful every time. The amount of rain that comes down, it just comes fast and furious. 
Is the city's sewer system able to handle these storms as they progressively get worse? And how is the city adapting to these storms changing?

Mayor Adams: Well, a number of things. Commissioner Aggarwala and his team have been looking at several different methods to absorb the water. I mean, we're a city of concrete, and we had heavy rains earlier this week, so the ground was potentially still moist. 

We're not having enough time for the natural absorption of the water to take place. And so you do see these storms are becoming more and more severe, and we have to adjust to them. And just to answer your question specifically, no, our sewer systems are not built to manage this amount of water [in] such a short period of time. We're making adjustments in our system and infrastructure.

Peters: Yeah, I think we spoke to one of the city representatives about that sewer system not too long ago, saying it's gonna cost billions of dollars to get it up to speed to handle storms of this scale. So, what is the city doing moving forward, knowing that these are becoming a little bit more common, as we've seen?

Mayor Adams: Well, a number of things. Number one, we are empowering New Yorkers to make sure you clean out your catch basins. We are doing that as well; we send teams out ahead of time.

Notifications, we are encouraging New Yorkers to sign up to NotifyNYC. And we have major capital projects coming through DEP to displace water when we have heavy rain that takes place. So, it's a series of projects we're doing to get prepared. That's part of PlaNYC, looking at how we get prepared during these severe weather emergencies.

Verma: We also have some video right now, mayor. This is Grand Central Station and the just deluge of water coming down. It is unbelievable. It just feels like this happens every time we have a storm. What do you want to tell New Yorkers regarding this, who rely on public transportation?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, proper planning. We had a series of notifications for days now talking about [how] this storm was coming. We, again, encourage people to sign up for NotifyNYC. And when you see or hear or read about these storms that are coming, we should really plan our day around commuting and not wait until the storm is right on top of us to sort of coordinate or figure out how to commute. Information, early information is going to become the most potent tool we can use to deal with these storms.

Peters: All right, mayor, anything else you want to add in terms of what the city is dealing with right now?

Mayor Adams: No, we believe right now we're gonna have to ride out this storm like we've done before. And our emergency responders and city employees will be there to help New Yorkers.

Peters: All right, Mayor Adams, thanks so much for joining us. Wishing you the best.

Mayor Adams: Take care.

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