Ground was broken in September 2018 for the 12,600-square-foot facility, which is seated 18 feet above mean sea level and 2 feet above the 500-year flood level, in conformance with FEMA’s flood elevation requirements. Once the entire flood mitigation project is completed by the end of 2020, the power plant will replace the hospital’s original utility plant, constructed in 1977 at seven feet above mean sea level on the hospital’s north site.
“We made so many mistakes but it is wonderful to be a part of something that we did right” said BP Oddo, thanking two great partners in government for their partnership on pushing to get this project to become reality in the wake of Sandy, Assemblyman Michael Cusick and Senator Andrew Lanza. When Sandy struck Staten Island in 2012, water surrounded the hospital’s electrical power plant. Had it been completely flooded, the facility would have gone black.
Funding for the project came from a $28 million appropriation acquired by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio through the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant Program’s Disaster Relief Fund and a $12 million award by New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo under the Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
The Gruppuso Family Women and Newborn Center will expand newborn care on Staten Island in a state-of-the-art facility. The center is scheduled to open in early 2022.