Earlier today, Governor Hochul at an event in Montauk announced increased resiliency efforts to protect Long Island from extreme storms. The Governor announced $2.5 million for the Ditch Plains Beach project to restore the beach and provide safe recreational space for residents and visitors. The funding is announced ahead of an anticipated 'above average' hurricane season and builds on the Governor's comprehensive resilience plan to protect New Yorkers from extreme weather events.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning. I kept the weather good for you, didn't I? Okay, there you go. Great to see so many of my friends here in this most gorgeous part of our state. It is extraordinary to be back here on Long Island, in Suffolk County, and here in Montauk.

I don't need to tell any of you this because you know how precious what we have here is. Long Island's coastal towns are certainly among the most beautiful places anywhere in the entire country, right? But we've seen time and time again that Mother Nature may have a different opinion on what we should have here on Long Island because she keeps battering us with these historic storms from Superstorm Sandy, which still brings back such horrible memories for many of us, to Hurricane Lee.

And we know that the threat of climate change is no longer a threat. We talked about threats for a long time. That is our new normal. That is our reality here in the State of New York. And it's been such a threat to our coastal towns. It really impacts not just the natural beauty, but it affects the little communities that have grown up along here.

The Chamber of Commerce knows this. When there's storms and heavy rains and buildings damaged, it affects tourism. It hurts the residents, hurts our small businesses. And to all those people, the creative people who call this their home, it's a real struggle. I'm here today because I will continue my commitment to protecting our beaches, our shorelines, and making sure that as these threats continue, and they're becoming more ferocious, that we will make the investments now so future generations know that we cared, and we made a difference.

And I'm not on this journey alone. This is a room full of incredibly dedicated individuals. Everybody from the people who work here at the New York State Parks, let's give them a round of applause. Our parks team. And how many years have we had State Parks in the State of New York? Ah, yes, the 100th anniversary. 100, right? Go 100. Another 100 more.100 years. And our elected officials. Our Senator, Anthony Palumbo, has joined us. Thank you for being here, Senator. Assemblymember Fred Thiele, great champion of our environment. Thank you, Fred. Ed Romaine, our County Executive, a great partner of mine. Great partner. Kathee Burke Gonzalez, our Supervisor.

They always love you best at local government. I miss my 14 years on a town board. But it was, it's a place where you make the most direct impacts on your community. And I cherished my time in local government. So, to you and your town board members, I thank you for caring enough to continue the fight and be our allies.

We have many other friends as well. Kay Tyler, our Executive Director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk. Thank you. Leo Daunt, the head of the Chamber of Commerce. One of the most fun chambers of commerce in the country. Members of my administration - the real power behind the administration, Karen Persichilli Keogh, who comes from Long Island herself, my Secretary to the Governor.

Kevin Law, another Long Islander, you all know Kevin Law, the Chair of Empire State Development. John Rhodes, the Acting CEO of the Long Island Power Authority, let's give him a round of applause. And we also have the boys and girls of the Young Filmmakers of Montauk, where are you? Thank you for using your talents and we look forward to many great projects going forward.

And I get a chance to do a special shout out, I don't always get to do this, but because you have the first woman Governor. You also get the bonus of having the first gentleman in history. And that is my husband, Bill Hochul, who's joined us today.

I was just here a year ago at the opening of the reopening of the Montauk Lighthouse. Everybody, anybody who was there, that was a great event and itself a symbol of resiliency. The people of this area who so cherish what we have here, who keep investing and never give up. And so, we'll continue making sure that that iconic structure known around the world is there and endures forever.

And I know many of you right now are breathing a little sigh of relief that tropical storm Debby, which the images across the country, especially in Florida and the southeast, are just so devastating. It seems to be tracking west. I assure you I'm monitoring every minute of it. As soon as I leave here, I'll get an update on power outages and flooding, but it is going to spare this area for the weekend at least, so that's incredible.

But you also know that one storm can wash away everything that you've built. Everything that you love can be gone in an instant - why we have to build up our resiliency. This is the peak of hurricane season. It is getting longer, more sustained than we've ever had. I was literally Governor for two weeks, three years ago this month. We had not one but two hurricanes, more than the State of Florida had. I was out here. The weekend before I became governor, we had the warnings that there was a storm coming this way. I was literally on the beach just saying, "Go home, get out of here. It's coming. It's coming." Because I was so frightened of what could happen here as well. So, we are in hurricane season.

We are also in tornado season. Did you ever know we have tornado season in the State of New York? In the month of July, we had 23 tornadoes in the State of New York - more than every state and tornado alley combined. And communities like Rome were just devastated - structures, beautiful architecture, churches from the 1800s are now flattened.

My hometown of Buffalo, blizzard, yes, tornadoes, no. We had a tornado the second in two weeks, not long ago. So, when they say there's tornado warnings, take heed. This is serious, my friends. These are wildly devastating. So, we must always be vigilant here in East Hampton. You know, it's a long, long season and we've seen what happens. And I want to make sure you see what happens, some of our pictures here, the washing of, washing of homes and hotels and the restaurants are all devastated. We've had dunes beach roads, flooded homes, damage, and the Ditch Plains Beach that I visited when I was Lieutenant Governor was gone and almost vanished. These storms have caused such serious erosion, especially to the Ditch Plains coastline, that it became even more vulnerable to the next storm, right? You're more exposed.

And last year across - you think about the damage - last year across the nation, climate related disasters cost $92 billion in direct damage. When you represent local communities, and you have that scale of damage, and FEMA cannot be there for everything, you have to count on your state, right? You have to count on your state. And that's what I want to say, is that we are here. We cannot afford to have beaches washed away. Workers laid off their jobs. People saying I just can't do it anymore. I can't keep rebuilding because then we have a loss of our population and a loss of this magnificent treasure.

So, we want to make sure that we are firmly committed - all of us are committed to ensuring that this cannot happen. It cannot happen. I will not let this happen. Not in Montauk, not anywhere on the beautiful coastline of Long Island. And that's why today, as part of our ongoing effort, I'm announcing $2.5 million in state funding to help East Hampton rehab the Ditch Plains Beach. Supervisor, will that help? Alright, alright.

I can't tell you how many times as a local official we were calling on Albany for help and somehow, they didn't answer the phone. I said we were going to change that, I want to make sure that our state government is responsive to our local governments because that matters. You cannot afford to make these investments. Even our counties and other governments, it's an extra burden that you never budget for. So, we want to make sure that we rehab the Ditch Plains Beach, safeguard the surrounding areas from more future flooding.

I know it's a two-phase project. The first phase was done in June. Congratulations on that. But as you can see, we have the pictures here, 5,800 cubic yards of sand was placed to restore the beach so they could enjoy it this summer. But I'm worried about the future too. And again, I applaud all the local leaders who have brought this to our attention, who have cried for help and said, we have to have your support.

And again, I thank our representatives in Albany. Fred Thiele, Anthony Palumbo, I thank you for being the voices that this community needed to make sure we have these resources as well.

So, I know we were on the right path. I know these are the investments we need to make, and we'll get there. We're going to get there. We're not surrendering, right? This is too precious for all of us, and I'm going to continue working on projects like these and continuing to work with the Army Corps of Engineers. We just agreed and awarded a contract for $52 million. $52 million of work that's going to begin very soon, so it helps to have strong relationships with the Army Corps of Engineers.

And we're taking this aggressive approach statewide. And earlier this year, I outlined a comprehensive resiliency plan that years ago, people would have thought was redundant. "Why do you need that?" But now we have to find ways to help people who are affected.

Helping families, low- and moderate-income families who have to pay for upgrades to their homes to reduce the flood risk and be able to help pay for flood repairs if they sustain damage. We have a voluntary buyout program - we've talked about this before - for those living in the most vulnerable areas, helping them make the decision that may save them from devastation in the future.

And as well as that is expanding our statewide disaster response plan. I added $11 million in our State Budget to add more staff to our Office of Emergency Management because we're using them all the time. And that means more boots on the ground. When you need help, that flag that says, "Governor, we need you," I will have the resources to send like this. This is what they're trained to do. This is what I've insisted that they be ready to do and respond so they can handle the storms.

And again, focusing on local governments, we have $15 million to supply generators, the water pumps, the flood barrier technology to help our local municipalities. We're not leaving you hanging on alone.

Again, I know a little bit about this. I know how important and urgent it is for local governments to be able to take care of their citizens. I want to let you know that I am joined with you. I'm right at your side. I'll make sure you have the resources, whether it's this beach, it's beaches that we invested in earlier this summer - trying to make a difference. And not just undo the impacts that are already there, but to say we could head off future impacts. That's what smart government is all about.

So that's what makes this area so unique: the people, the elected leaders, the citizens who step up. I'm grateful for all of them, and we'll continue to work together to preserve this incredible, precious gift that God has given to us here in Montauk, here on Long Island.

So, thank you very much, everybody. We look forward to continuing to work.

Let me call up our Supervisor. Supervisor, come on up.

Contact the Governor's Press Office