ITHACA, N.Y. — Tompkins County legislators have passed a resolution urging the federal government to provide immediate support for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as the territories struggle to recover after powerful hurricanes.
The resolution supported New York’s efforts so far aiding Puerto Rico and urged the federal government to provide immediate additional support for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Now, millions of U.S. citizens are without electricity and lack basic necessities and access to drinking water.
Legislator Carol Chock, who represents District 3, brought the resolution titled "Resolution in Support of New York State Aid to Puerto Rico and Urging Our Federal Government to Provide Immediate Additional Support for Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands" to the table Tuesday to Tompkins County Legislature and it was unanimously supported.
"Many of them with terrible consequences without us weighing in, but this one is different.
"We pay significant taxes, as do the residents of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, in part so the federal government will be able to provide emergency support."
In the wake of these storms, Tompkins County residents have been doing what they can to help the situation in Puerto, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida and Texas.
* NOTE: As of 10/2/2017, over half the population of Puerto Rico lack clean drinking water, only one of its 69 hospitals is fully functional, 80% of the crops were destroyed, 91% of cellular communications sites and 1,360 of the 1,600 cell phone towers were toppled, 85% of telephone and internet cables were destroyed and only 5% of the island’s electricity is in service. While the U.S. Virgin Islands have potable water, food and services, many homes remain without roofs or temporary roof coverings.

Could Tompkins County have another drought this summer?.
And the summer after that.
And the summer after that.
According to early predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, Tompkins County – and the whole of the northeastern United States – is on course for another summer marked by above average temperatures.
Between 1895 and 2011, temperatures in the Northeastern United States have increased by almost 2˚F and, with it, high volume precipitation events have increased by more than 70 percent since 1958, according to figures from the 2014 National Climate Assessment while concurrently, droughtlike conditions related to bouts of extreme heat are predicted to intensify.
None of this definitively means there will be a drought this summer: as climatologists can only determine the outlook for precipitation about 14 days out (it looks like the next two weeks will be fairly wet, Spaccio said), it is almost impossible to predict whether or not all the pieces will fall into place leading to another drought, especially when the water table is at a healthy level.
“Right now, (a drought) is not expected,” Spaccio said.
“But conditions can change and, if we were to get a change in the weather conditions, we’d reexamine that.” But, she said, the conversation on summer droughts may soon become a regular occurrence at the start of every summer.
“We are expecting to see more of these long and short term droughts due to the effects of climate change,” she said.
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