NEW YORK (WPIX)—
In a show of force today at the Office of Emergency Management, top city officials discussed the clean up from one storm and plans for another one. OEM Commissioner Joseph Bruno announced:- the city should qualify for federal disaster aid and will seek "Major Disaster Declaration" from President Obama - all fallen trees have been removed from homes, cars and roads - 2,500 tons of debris has been removed from streets and parks
Officials are also prepared for the latest round of severe wind and weather expected to hit Thursday. Commissioner Bruno is concerned with weakened trees and he anticipates any flooding would be localized.
Clean up efforts are still underway from a storm that swept through Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island on September 16th. City officials say communication and coordination during this recovery effort have been excellent.
Pix 11's Greg Mocker attended the press conference. He asked why extra resources were not brought in the weekend after the storm. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said, "It took time to mobilize those extra crews. We have an existing emergency contract and we had to expand it."
"We did all of the things in the order that made sense to us," Bruno said. "I think we put in an enormous effort."
More than 9,000 calls about damage to trees came in.
The city says FEMA has yet to decide if the damage meets the criteria for individual assistance.
READ THE FULL UPDATE FROM OEM.
