Governor Hochul signed Executive Order No. 63 on September 25, declaring a disaster emergency across Bronx, Kings, Nassau, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, plus contiguous areas, ahead of the coastal storm bearing down on the region this weekend.
Here's the part that matters if you do any public work in those counties: a disaster declaration switches on emergency procurement authority under State Finance Law Section 163. Agencies can waive competitive bidding and go straight to a contractor for debris removal, emergency repairs, and flood mitigation work — no RFP, no 30-day advertising window, sometimes no bid at all if the agency head certifies the emergency need.
That's not a hypothetical. After past coastal storms and Ida-level flooding, DDC and NYCDOT have both issued emergency task orders under exactly this kind of declaration — the kind of call that goes out to firms already on an as-needed contract list, not to whoever answers an ad in the City Record.
If your firm does trade work in debris removal, dewatering, emergency shoring, tree/limb clearing, or catch-basin clearing, and you're not already on one of the standing emergency-response rosters at DDC, DEP, or your county's Department of Public Works, this is the moment to find out how to get listed — not after the storm hits.
The order itself doesn't name specific contracts yet. It authorizes state agencies to mobilize personnel, resources, and — critically for contractors — streamlined purchasing. Watch the City Record and your county's emergency management office over the next several days for the task orders that follow.
This declaration covers the same nor'easter The Punch List flagged earlier this week; what's new here is the legal mechanism the state just switched on, and what it means for anyone who wants a piece of the cleanup work.