February 19, 2025
Canisteo, N.Y.—In a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul, area State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C-Big Flats), Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C-Corning), Assemblywoman Andrea Bailey (R,C-Geneseo), and Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski (R,C-Olean) are once again calling on the governor to provide additional state assistance to localities hit hard by flash flooding from Tropical Storm Debby last August. The area lawmakers are specifically urging Hochul to ensure that the state covers the local share of disaster-related costs from last year’s storm that impacted communities in Steuben, Allegany, Ontario, Yates, and other upstate New York counties. In a February 14th letter to Hochul (see attached copy), the area legislators wrote, “We appreciate this opportunity to once again urge your ongoing and immediate attention to the severe flash flooding from Tropical Storm Debby on August 8-10, 2024, that devastated local roads and other infrastructure, homes, businesses, and farms across multiple counties throughout the Southern Tier region we represent, with numerous municipalities in Steuben County being among the hardest hit.”
While acknowledging that federal and state assistance was made available to eligible homeowners and businesses through programs like New York’s “Resilient and Ready Home Repair Program” and other initiatives, area legislators highlighted the ongoing strain placed on local governments.
In their letter, O’Mara, Palmesano, Bailey and Sempolinski wrote, “County and town resources and responders were overwhelmed. The damage went far beyond what any local government can handle on its own–particularly in many of these areas, which are rural and sparsely populated. The situation was and remains dire. Once again, the costs of rebuilding and repairing public infrastructure, exacerbated by the enormous costs and hardship inflicted on individual homeowners and businesses, simply cannot be met without additional state assistance…the State of New York has undertaken precedent-setting responses to other disasters in many regions, including ours, specifically and most importantly by helping with the local share of the costs during Hurricanes Sandy and Irene and, most recently, Tropical Storm Fred three years ago.
“We believe that similar action is desperately needed and warranted now. We cannot emphasize strongly enough the need for New York State to immediately assume the local share of the recovery and rebuilding costs for municipalities impacted by Tropical Storm Debby last August.”
