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Hurricane Sandy

Monday, Nov 19, 2012 at 9:21 PM

Flood Protection in Sandy-Hit Region Unfunded for Years

AP Federal projects intended to help protect New York and New Jersey towns from hurricanes and coastal flooding have languished – many unfunded – for decades, NBC 4 New York's I-Team has learned. The stalled projects, often approved by Congress as far back as the 1980s and 90s, were intended to study the feasibility of man-made barriers like seawalls, marshlands or large sand dunes to protect coastal areas on Staten Island as well as the Rockaways, Long Island and the Jersey shore – all areas ravaged by Hurricane Sandy last month. One such study, aimed at making recommendations for flood barriers along the south shore of Staten Island, remains unfinished even though it was commissioned in 1993, NBC 4 New York's I-Team found. That study, which the Army Corps of Engineers predicted would be finished by 2014, did not begin until 2000 and even then was delayed due to lack of funding, according to the Corps. The I-Team also found eight other Army Corps projects designed to help minimize damage to areas now left in wreckage by Sandy — all of them also delayed due to lack of funds from Congress and, at times, from local partners. Get More