The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making it rain in Coney Island.
The feds are giving Coney Island Hospital a $923 million cash injection to mend and fortify the Sandy-damaged hospital, the city announced on Nov. 6, as part of a larger $1.6 billion package benefitting four city hospitals.
“This historic, over-$1.6-billion federal investment will provide a massive shot of adrenaline for New York City’s public hospitals, and their physical and financial recovery from Superstorm Sandy,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, who was instrumental in securing the funding.
Coney Island Hospital is one of 11 city hospitals run by the Health and Hospitals Corporation.
The grant is the second largest the federal agency has ever doled out, and Coney Island hospital got the lion’s share, Mayor DeBlasio said.
Of the $1.6 billion total, $65 million will repay hospitals for repair work they conducted after the historic storm, Office of Recovery and Resilience director Daniel Zarrilli. The rest will beef up hospitals’ defenses against future catastrophic storms.
At Coney Island Hospital, the city plans to build a new “resilient critical services building” outfitted with emergency power generators, heating and cooling systems, water pumps, and a second-floor emergency room. The hospital was forced to close its emergency department in 2012 after flood water destroyed critical imaging and radiology equipment.
To shore up the rest of the campus, the city is building a 1,720-foot-long flood wall that can stave off the kind of major flood that typically only happens twice a millennium.
The mayor hailed Sen. Schumer’s efforts to bring the federal money to New York.
“He has been the leader of the efforts to make sure we had the resources we need that we could fully recover,” DeBlasio said. “Lord knows there were people in Washington trying to low-ball New York City, New York state, New Jersey — and the senator fought for the actual amount needed to get us back, and get us strong.”
Congress has already appropriated the money, and the new Republican-controlled Senate cannot claw back the cash, Schumer said.
Construction should begin within six to nine months, according to Health and Hospitals Corporation president Dr. Ram Raju.
