The city’s official evacuation plan for a massive tent shelter at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field lacks details and clarity on what to do in a weather-related evacuation, according to a copy of the plan obtained by Gothamist.
The plan, which has not previously been reported and was obtained through a public records request, was created by emergency management officials in November as the city set up the four-tent shelter. The former federal airfield houses about 2,000 migrants on Barren Island, surrounded by Jamaica Bay, and is part of a network of shelters the city has established to accommodate the ongoing migrant influx.
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration ordered the site evacuated for the first time last month, ahead of a powerful storm that brought wind gusts as high as 61 mph and more than two inches of rain.
The large-scale tent shelter can accommodate about 500 families at once and is running under an agreement between the city and National Park Service, which oversees Floyd Bennett as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. But critics have for months urged officials to find another place to house migrants, arguing the airfield is far from services, schools, public transit and jobs and is vulnerable to coastal flooding.
According to the plan reviewed by Gothamist, as well as information provided by the city, the official procedure leaves much room for improvisation.
“Guests will be transferred to [LOCATION TBD] for duration of storm,” the one-and-a-half-page document states. It also notes officials should confirm the availability of bathrooms, changing tables, outlets and additional power strips at any hypothetical backup sites.
Migrants staying at Floyd Bennett were evacuated on Jan. 9 to James Madison High School, about three miles inland. Some said they and their children slept on the floor or seats of an auditorium despite pledges by city officials to provide cots. The school, which operated on a remote basis the next day due to the…
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