NYC NOW - July 10, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

The worst of the storms that lashed New York state Sunday night are over... but Governor Kathy Hochul says storms like this are the new normal. Plus, family and friends are mourning the deaths of two Newark firefighters. And, we post up outside the Brooklyn Children’s Museum to hear what’s top of mind for some New Yorkers.

Good evening and welcome to NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre for WNYC. The worst of the storms that last New York State Sunday night are over. But Governor Kathy Hogle says the devastation must stay front of mind. She says storms like this one, which dropped at least eight inches of rain on some parts of the Hudson Valley, are now the new normal. We in government, working with our partners on the ground,

have to work with our communities to build up resiliency, to be prepared for the worst because the worst continues to happen. At least one person is dead after the storm and several more are missing. Orange County Executive Steve Newhouse says there was little warning before conditions became dangerous. I got the emergency text from the weather service and then within 10 minutes I got a call from 911 that said we had a missing woman. Newhouse thinks it'll take weeks, if not months, for his county to recover from the storm. crews will soon begin assessing the damage to the region to put in requests for disaster assistance. Now to New Jersey, where a cargo ship fire at Port Newark last week has finally been contained.

Two Newark firefighters died while battling the blaze. WNYC's Karen Yee has more. It wasn't until this week that the family of Augusto Augie Akibu learned the nine-year veteran firefighter used to run errands for a high school football coach, who was undergoing cancer treatments. This is who Augie was. It's Augie's cousin, Carlos Enriquez. He would give you the shirt off his back. He was our hero. Augie and Wayne Bear Brooks, Jr., a 16-year veteran,

were the first Newark firefighters to die in the line of duty since 2007. They don't make him like him. Eddie Paolo has known Augie since they were kids and worked alongside him in the fire department. He was tough as nails and sweet beyond belief. Both firefighters died after being trapped on the burning cargo ship, carrying at least 12 decks of more than a thousand cars. Roger Terry says his nephew Brooks could have had any job he wanted, but...

He wanted to be a firefighter all of his life, a real life Superman. Michael Johnson was a member of Ladder 4, along with Brooks, who his friends called Bear. He's touching everybody's life in his department, amazing friend, amazing brother. Latter 4, Captain Greg Meehan, says Bear always had a smile. There's no point where we're not going to remember Bear. His name will be on our minds for the rest of our lives. Stick around. There's more after the break. Every now and then, WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk visits neighborhoods across the city to collect stories

and hear what's top of mind for New Yorkers. Here's some of what we heard outside the Brooklyn Children's Museum in Crown Heights. My name is Jesse Arrington. And we live in Bedstuy, Brooklyn. We attend a public school there called United Brooklyn. One bright spot for us is our crossing guard, Miss T. When we first started attending the school in first grade, Miss T's always posted at the corner.

Rain or Shine, she's there with a huge smile on her face and her big voice telling us, wait, wait, wait, or come on, come on, come on, hurry up, hurry up. At some point, I don't know how it started, but she figured out that I like dancing. and so every day we would do a dance together as we cross the street on our way into school. Do you want to do the dance? Okay, so if it's Thursday, how's the dance going to go, Daddy? She'll go, it's Thursday. Do the Thursday dance.

It's Thursday. Do the Thursday dance. Break it down, break it down, break it down. One time somebody called 3-1-1 because she was too loud, which we thought was kind of silly because she's keeping the kids safe, So we had to write a letter to the police precinct and make sure that they knew that Ms. T's a very important member of our community. My name is Antonio Diaz. I'm from Sunset Park.

I drove a school bus for 20 years. Did many trips to many zoos, museums for children. It was very good. It was very good experience. I had a very great time with the kids. The kids were always great. Teachers, you know, kept in touch with each other. Come back, pick me up, you know? I did this for a long time.

And it's not an easy job, but I loved it, though. You got to love what you do, right? My name is Azaria. I'm seven and a half. My story is I was in kindergarten, and I didn't have any friends yet until I met my friend, Dottie, and I said, what's your name? And she said, I'm Dottie. We played for a little bit, and I said,

She said, do you want to be resties? And then she said, yeah. We like to go on trips, play together, dolls, app pads. Anything that can be fun. My name is Krista Koo, right now I live in Queens, originally from Florida. This is Axel. He's four years old. He's my son.

And we love raising him in the city. I didn't know before moving to the city how family-friendly it is, how kid-friendly it is. Oh. Every weekend, there's just endless. possibilities as far as taking him to parks, museums, all kinds of historical events, and also just being close with other families and neighbors, and everyone just naturally gravitates and hangs out with each other. My name is Lucas Posada.

I'm from Brooklyn, and this is my daughter, Lenny. You know, we really like to listen to music together. We really love it. It's part of our lives, whether it's, you know, listening to some classic rock or some reggatone. and her favorite is Carol G. We really enjoy it, and it's a huge part of our life. Probably the earliest memories I have of classical music specifically. You know, I always joke with my friends.

Like, it was always the dad move that they would always wake you up, like Saturday or Sunday morning really early to clean the house. And so for most of my friends, it was like classic rock, you know, Bob Seeger kind of stuff. And my dad, it was the three tenors and the classic operas. And it was just throwing the records and turn it as loud as possible. And it would just wake us all up. So I just have this distinct memory of being a little kid of the cracks and the pops of the record player

and then just like these, you know, Pauberode coming on and just waking all of us up. And we're just little kids. So, you know, at the time it was annoying. But I look back and I'm thankful that it was always a part of my life that way. I'm hoping it'll be the same thing. That's a sweet little collection of voices from outside the Brooklyn Children's Museum in Crown Heights. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday.

Three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.