The Program
The NY Rising Community Reconstruction (NYRCR) Program is a participatory recovery and resiliency initiative established to provide assistance to 124 New York State communities severely damaged by Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee. The Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) is allotting federal funds to support the planning and implementation of community-developed recovery and resiliency projects. The NYRCR Program is currently implementing over 300 projects throughout New York State through partnerships with local governments, non-profit partners, and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. These projects, which range from essential infrastructure investments to critical public services, will help communities recover from the devastating damage of Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee. The projects are crucial to ensure that residents and communities across New York State are physically, economically, and socially more resilient in the future.
Resilience and Recovery Projects Underway
The types of projects the NYRCR Program is implementing range widely and respond directly to the specific needs of each community. Examples of projects in implementation include:
- Community-wide drainage infrastructure improvements;
- Retrofits to critical community facilities with emergency backup power; and
- Workforce training programs to provide local residents with skills related to storm recovery.
Community Resiliency Planning
The backbone of the NYRCR Program is a community-driven resilience planning process that is unprecedented in scope and financial commitment.
From 2012 through 2014, the NYRCR Program worked with more than 650 local residents and business owners in storm-impacted communities to discuss and plan how best to rebuild their communities to become more resilient. These committee members reached out to their neighbors through more than 250 public engagement events. The NYRCR Program’s outreach included communities that are traditionally underrepresented, such as immigrant populations and students. The end result of this unique planning endeavor are Community Reconstruction plans that focus on unique rebuilding and resiliency strategies for each community. These plans are essential to driving the recovery and resiliency projects undertaken by the NYRCR Program and provide groundwork for future resilience projects to be undertaken in the communities.
Read the plans here, or view Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the program!
NOTE: The NY Rising Community Reconstruction plans referenced on these pages are comprehensive planning documents created by and for the affected communities. For this reason, the documents describe projects that were discussed; however, not all of these were selected by the community as priorities to be funded.