Ida Programs

Hazard Awareness and Community Outreach

Program Partners

• New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM)

Program Descriptions

Immigration Outreach Specialist

NYCEM will hire an Immigration Outreach Specialist to provide outreach and education to people with limited English proficiency. Efforts will specifically focus on the risks of flooding, coastal storms, and the steps New Yorkers can take to be prepared. As immigrant communities were disproportionally affected both by Hurricanes Sandy and PTC Ida, this position will be crucial in making sure the most vulnerable communities in NYC are prepared for the next emergency. This position will work in concert with the city-wide mailing and other advertising efforts.

Notify NYC

Notify NYC is the City of New York’s free emergency alert program, available in 12 languages in addition to English. Although the program has more than 1 million subscribers, very few are signed-up to receive alerts in languages other than English. To encourage more residents to sign up for the program in foreign languages, NYCEM will conduct outreach including, but not limited to, mailing multilingual Notify NYC promotional cards to all New Yorkers once/year for three years, increasing advertising in ethnic media, and development of new creative to support this outreach.

Weather Monitoring

In advance of and during extreme weather events, the City consults with the National Weather Service (NWS) multiple times per day. As a national service, though, NWS may be inundated with requests for guidance and information. In order to receive hazardous weather forecasts and guidance as early as possible and that are tailored to New York City, CDBG-DR funds will pay for a contract with an additional weather service. This “second opinion” will provide a new data set by which the City can more rapidly and accurately alert residents to storms and other alerts.