The Mayor’s office has announced the appointment of Frank Varlack, the City Hall chief of staff, as the city’s extreme weather coordinator. This role is responsible for coordinating all city agencies involved in extreme weather response during storms and conducting after-action reviews to improve emergency management.
Varlack’s appointment comes after months of uncertainty about who held the position, which was created by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021 in the wake of the flooding caused by Hurricane Ida remnants. The Comptroller’s audit of the Adams administration’s response to Hurricane Ophelia last September raised concerns about the lack of a clear extreme weather coordinator.
The audit also highlighted several issues with the city’s emergency preparedness during the storm, including the lack of catch basin cleaning, inadequate emergency alerts, and limited tracking of basement apartments vulnerable to flooding.
In response to the audit’s findings, Mayor Adams’ spokeswoman, Liz Garcia, said the city had taken steps to improve flood preparedness, including inspecting catch basins, distributing flood barriers, and providing advance notice to New Yorkers. She added that the city would continue to build on these efforts.
