Bergen Grassroots to Hold Forum on Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

Teaneck-based Bergen Grassroots will hold a discussion on the challenges and lasting impacts of Hurricane Sandy Thursday night. Full details are below, as provided by Charles Powers, president of Bergen Grassroots: 

“Sandy – its aftermath and its challenges to a viable future for Bergen County”  A Bergen Grassroots monthly meeting, August 1, 2013, The Ethical Culture Society, North and Larch, Teaneck

Led by: the Hackensack Riverkeeper, mayorality level leadership from Moonachie and/or Little Ferry, and senior representatives from both the Bergen County Executive’s office, the Meadowlands Commission and state legislators Other Bergen county and municipal officials elected officials have been and are invited and will be given an opportunity for their input. BGR President Chuck Powers will moderate the session.

Exactly nine month ago, as the rains poured down on North Jersey’s swollen surface water systems, the massive Hurricane Sandy churned through Newark Bay up through the mouth of the Hackensack creating unprecedented devastation to Bergen towns all along the Hackensack River, but particularly into the always flood-vulnerable communities of Moonachie and Little Ferry. 

The surge itself was perhaps best captured by the monitoring devices of the Meadowlands Commission which has since developed a presentation that powerfully communicates what the region and, particularly those parts of it most badly hit, experienced.  And it is that presentation that will kick-off the next regular meeting of Bergen Grassroots at 7:30 on Thursday night August 1 at the Ethical Culture Society in Teaneck.  The presentation will be introduced by one of the two senior Commission officials attending the meeting.

The intent of showing the Commission’s presentation is to bring this meeting’s participants back to the reality of an event which we can now reasonably predict will be a regular part of living along the banks of this tidal river system. Resilience to meet such events and to have taken the steps to anticipate them involve some of the most complex and life-changing policy decisions that ever confront citizens and their leaders.

Put simply, when and where do we try to control what this riverine system does to our ways of life and property and when and how do we move out of its way?  And “who” should pay for “what” as those decisions get made -- for next year, for the next decade and even longer term? Equity, planning savvy, humanitarian concern for those whose lives are most disrupted, respect for the power of nature, engineering acumen -- all belong in that mix. 

To get us started into the center of that discussion the Riverkeeper will describe his perspective, the county executive’s representative will describe the County’s current initiatives, and we will hear from leaders of communities most ravaged by this event and whose citizen’s naturally fear what is yet to come and have perspectives on what should be done.  We will then in an open forum entertain the views of the others, whether they are official or personal ones.

No area in the tri-state area hit by Sandy can avoid this tough set of discussions. Lively debates about resilience, fairness, and real options are ongoing and informing tough choices everywhere in the areas affected. Obviously the debates are fueled by the resources currently available - but they won’t last  long.  

We are unaware of any forum here in Bergen County that takes the multiple types of destruction that SANDY left us with to generate a substantial and sustained discourse in which a broad spectrum of leaders and residents can participate. Everyone we talk to welcomes the Bergen Grassroots effort to enable that discussion and debate.

What happens after Thursday night? We will that night form a task group from the mix of folks there that will keep tabs on the progress being made, continue to frame the debate and as clear preferences on the tough issues emerge, help BGR become an advocate for policies that make sense. But on Thursday night, we will be satisfied with generating the commitment to an enduring effort to choose well and care deeply for those whose lives Sandy so seriously disrupted and who still need protection that can itself be sustained.