Post Hurricane Sandy, NYC Mayor calls for stricter hospital construction codes

To minimize the impact of climate change and enable quicker recovery following extreme weather events, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg seeks to amend construction codes of hospitals and healthcare facilities in the city.

Bolstering healthcare facilities is part of a 400-page comprehensive report that the mayor’s office released on June 12. The plan, “A Stronger, More Resilient New York,” contains 250 recommendations to ready the city in case another disaster like Hurricane Sandy strikes.

In a speech unveiling the plan at Duggal Greenhouse at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on June 12, Bloomberg commended hospitals and healthcare facilities for evacuating 6,400 patients from six hospitals and 26 residential-care facilities safely with no lives lost during Hurricane Sandy. "But we want to avoid emergency evacuations whenever possible. And we have to make sure the facilities we depend on in emergencies are there for us when we need them most,” he said, according to a transcript.

To achieve that end, Bloomberg said construction codes will be updated "to require new facilities to meet a high level of flood resistance—and to have access to backup capacity for power and other critical systems, not only in case of flooding, but also heat waves.”

He went on to say that existing facilities will be required to meet the same benchmarks by 2030 and that a $50 million incentive program will enable financially strapped nursing homes and adult care facilities meet those requirements sooner.

To view the full chapter on disaster readiness for the healthcare industry in New York City, go here.