I won’t ask for more time in office, gov sez amid storm threat

Gov. Cuomo said on Sunday he still plans to resign Tuesday morning, despite issuing a state of emergency for Tropical Storm Henri as it smacked Long Island’s eastern shore and dumped buckets of rain across the region.

“My final day is tomorrow, or Tuesday morning,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “I have asked my emergency management team, to the extent they were thinking of leaving Tuesday, that I would appreciate the accommodation for the good of the state if they can stay in place until this situation is completed.”

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is slated to take over as governor on Tuesday, was not present at the news conference. Cuomo said she “has been briefed on all of this and we’re in constant communication.”

Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the storm Saturday, which had already pushed record-setting levels of rainfall into the city, forcing the cancellation of Mayor de Blasio’s We Love NYC concert in Central Park.

Central Park recorded 4.45 inches of rain on Saturday, an all-time high for that day, according to the National Weather Service. That included 1.84 inches of rain between 11 p.m. and midnight, the most ever recorded over a single hour in the city.

Henri was downgraded by the National Hurricane Center from a category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm Sunday morning as it pushed farther west, sparing much of New York from the worst of its impacts but putting the south shore of Rhode Island and Connecticut directly in its path.

President Biden on Sunday approved a state of emergency for New York as a result of the storm, which makes the state eligible for federal funding to reimburse the cost of work to prepare for its impact.