Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Urges New Yorkers to Prepare for Heavy Rain, Flash Flooding Today Through Wednesday

Earlier today, Governor Hochul urged New Yorkers in the lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island areas to prepare for heavy rain and likely flash flooding starting this afternoon and continuing into Wednesday. Some areas could see up to five inches of rain and rainfall rates up to three inches per hour into Wednesday. Governor Hochul also warned of additional heavy rain possible Thursday into Saturday due to tropical moisture associated with Tropical Cyclone Debby.

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

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

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

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

Good morning. New York is once again making history, but not in a way we'd like. For the fourth year in a row, we're experiencing record setting weather conditions. Let's look back.

In 2021, around this time, my first two weeks as Governor, we had two hurricanes, which was more than the State of Florida had at the time. In 2022, we had an historic blizzard in the City of Buffalo with 51 inches of snow. In 2023, we had a 1,000-year flooding event in the Hudson Valley. And this year, something new. In 2024, we're seeing a record number of tornadoes across New York, actually 23 in this month of July alone.

I've said this before. We've had circumstances in places like Buffalo as recently as yesterday, and in Fulton County, causing a lot of down power lines and trees and some damage in Western New York. And that's on top of other tornadoes they had there just recently. I've said this before: this is our new normal because of climate change.

And as the leader of this state, it's all about being prepared in advance with the early warning systems we have, which went off this morning with great intensity, which is why we're here today. My job is to bring every resource to the table to protect New Yorkers.

Today, I'm joined by my dream team, Kathryn Garcia, who's been at my side through every one of these disasters - the Head of State Operations. As well as Commissioner Jackie Bray, the Commissioner of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, who is also joining us by Zoom. I just dropped a Zoom with DHSES up in Albany, where we're participating in a media literacy event.

So, what we have to do is focus on getting the updates. I'm getting updates literally every hour starting early this morning about what is about to hit the State of New York. Now, I'm not talking about the hurricane. That's coming. It's stalled right now, devastating, but I'm talking about new conditions that are showing a rapid shift. And I wanted to share the latest with New Yorkers and make sure they're paying close attention.

Again, we heard on the news yesterday, this is a later in the week, possibly weekend event. We're talking about something different. So right now, we have a flood watch in place for the entire Downstate region. We're expecting heavy rain across New York City, Long Island, and the lower Hudson Valley. When's it starting? Not this weekend, it's starting this afternoon and continuing into tomorrow morning.

Now here's the problem. This is expected to be bringing huge volumes of rain, estimated at three to five inches in the heaviest places. This could fall at the rate of three inches per hour, and what that leads to is severe flooding. Also, a risk of severe thunderstorms, which can be deadly. And also, power lines could be down and people without power.

Now, as I said, this is happening today. This is all before we expect the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby, which are expected to hit New York later this week. Debby, as we know, has already dumped as much as 15 inches of rain in the State of Florida, and it's expected to continue to move through the Carolinas on our way. And already four people have lost their lives tragically as a result of this storm in Florida.

It's too early to tell the impact that Debby will have on New York, but every model shows that we are in the bullseye, right in the path of this storm coming. For that reason, and what we're experiencing today, I've already activated New York State's Emergency Operations Center for the entire week. I've already activated 100 members of the National Guard, pre-deploying them to be able to assist wherever necessary. I've communicated with Janno Lieber and the MTA to ensure that they are prepared for the worst-case scenarios. And again, this is something we had experience with early in my term as Governor, when we saw the images of water rushing down the stairs, debilitating our subway system. We've taken significant remedial steps since then, and he has already put a number of remediation in place, as well as measures we're taking right now. So, our emergency management team has reached out to local officials all over the region, and we're going to continue monitoring.

So, you've heard these before, but I'm going to repeat them again, the safety tips. I'm calling on all New Yorkers to continue monitoring this storm. Set your phone to get alerts. Make sure that you're watching out where your family is at this time. And I would say, when this starts, you do not want to be on the roads. With flash flooding, conditions change so rapidly, and you could end up in a vehicle where just a small amount of rain can turn your vehicle into a boat, and you are washed away. That is the tragedy that happens in these storms when people are just going about their everyday lives and not taking extreme precautions.

So, the weather service is going to keep sending out automated text messages. Keep an eye on those. And if you live in a low-lying area, which is a lot of this Downstate region, have your to-go bag packed, make sure you have an evacuation plan ready with your family. And as I said, stay off the roads because half of all deaths during flash flooding are vehicle related. Six inches of water can make you lose control of your vehicle.

So, I want to turn it over right now to Kathryn Garcia to give more of our details and our preparation. But this is something to be taken seriously. Do not wait until the hurricane remnants come. This is about to start today, and we're also advising our agencies to monitor the situation. Kathryn will speak some more about that, but we want to also have people prepare to go home early. Employers should be listening to this, watching this, and the best place may be for people not to be in transit heading home during a massive storm, but to start leaving their offices early today.

With that, I'd like to turn it over to Kathryn Garcia to talk in more detail about our preparations.

Contact the Governor's Press Office