Is New York City ready for Debby? Why some local residents say they're skeptical

KINGSBRIDGE HEIGHTS, the Bronx (PIX11) -- On Wednesday, it rained off and on in the Bronx, following a drenching that many parts of the borough got on Tuesday evening and night.

All that rain, though, is just a preview of what's anticipated here and throughout the region at the end of the week, when remnants of Tropical Storm Debby could possibly inundate the tri-state. 

Some people in the city say that city agencies are taking storm-related actions now, leaving them wondering how prepared New York is for the coming storm. 

On Wednesday morning, one clear sign of preparation was visible on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Morris Heights section. 

There, a work crew was positioned in the middle of a small convoy of vehicles, the biggest of which was a 10-wheel truck with a large apparatus on its bed. Called the VACTOR 2100, it's a massive vacuum unit. Workers from the city's Department of Environmental Protection moved an oversized hose connected to the truck into drainage grates in the roadway. The vacuum cleared out the pipes below each grate to help prevent what happened on Tuesday evening on the Deegan. 

Some cars got stranded there when the drains backed up during the heavy rainfall, flooding the roadway. E.J. Ayala lives near the Deegan service road.

"It was crazy because of the traffic and the flood," he said. "It was the flood, and there was the whole traffic [situation]. It was crazy." 

On Tuesday night, the Cross Bronx Expressway was in a similar situation when an NYPD unit had to rescue a half-dozen motorists from flood conditions. Nobody was hurt, but cars had to be abandoned. 

Another effect of Tuesday's deluge was about two miles north of the Cross Bronx, in the Highbridge Heights section. A four-story-tall tree fell onto two cars parked on either side of Claflin Avenue, damaging one and totaling another. 

"It's brand new," said David Becceril, who lives a couple of houses away from one of the affected cars. "She just got it a few months ago," he said about the electric blue Acura that was totaled. 

He's friends with the car's owner. PIX11 contacted her through him, but she chose not to be interviewed. 

Becceril, however, spoke about the situation with the fallen tree, which he said he'd worked hard to prevent from happening. 

"I saw the uprooting of the tree, so I called 311 and they sent an inspector over," Becceril said.  

He showed PIX11 the city's record of his complaint, which was opened and closed on July 31.

"They were like, 'There's nothing we can do,'" he said about the response he got from the city's parks department. 

"I found that weird," he continued, "that there was no work to be done there when you could visibly see the concrete coming up and the tree leaning over."

On Wednesday afternoon, the parks department removed the tree.

The situation represents concerns that various people in the neighborhood have, as rains from Debby threaten to inundate the area soon. They ask whether or not they can count on the city to be prepared for what's coming or if the city can only respond to problems after the fact. 

For its part, the New York City Parks Department issued a statement, through a spokesperson, about people having filed complaints about the tree before it fell. 

"We conduct tens of thousands of inspections on our trees every year," the statement began. "Our inspectors are urban forestry professionals, many of whom have advanced certifications from the International Society of Arboriculture (I.S.A.)." 

"In this case, the tree was inspected by our arborists about a week ago, on July 31. While the tree was slated for removal, the risks it presented did not indicate an emergency situation or need for imminent removal. Ultimately, it was the extreme weather conditions [that] caused the tree to fall."