Welcome To FloodChat (v1)

Quick Answers To Your Flooding Questions

FloodChat is a free new chatbot to help NYC renters with flooding. FloodChat was built with support from Rebuild By Design and the Rainproof NYC program.

Why Do We Need FloodChat?

• Faster: get answers without going to many web sites

• Specific: your questions, your neighborhood, your language

• Quality: quality sources pulled together

• Landlord: flood help means landlord help

Want To Test It Out?

We are in BETA which means we think it’s pretty good…but what do you think?

Step 1: Find your borough below and click on the button.

Step 2: Use FloodChat for 5 minutes

• New to chatbots? You can just type ”hi” to start

• Ask your flooding questions or select one of the options.

• See if you can get closer to a helpful solution

• When finished, type “done” (gives you link to Step 3)

Step 3: Fill out feedback form to answer 2 min of questions

That’s it! Let’s go.

Click on Your Borough

Now Tell Us What You Think

FEEDBACK FORM: If you are back here after testing FloodChat, click here to fill out the feedback form.

More on How FloodChat Works

FloodChat is meant to be a 24/7 flood helper. It’s a NYC-specific chatbot that connects you to trusted guidance and community resources — faster than scrolling through dozens of web pages which can often be repetitive. And we picked from hundreds of quality sources so it’s better than random internet stuff.

Moreover, it was built to help you from go from risk to solution in under 5 min with relevant hyper-local neighborhood information. Can be used in preparing before a storm, facing flooding right now, or recovering afterward. And can scale up in times of need.

We built FloodChat to feel like you are talking to someone who lives here. That means:

• short answers (get to the point)

• keep it local

• a friendly “you-got-this” vibe

• local pictures and stories (where we have them…more to be added)

• we send you to local hardware stores vs Amazon

• we highlight local community groups that can help in your area

The User Experience

1. Choose your borough
We did different boroughs to improve the ability to get hyper-local information faster. In fact, after you pick your borough, a good way to start is to enter your neighborhood. Eventually, FloodChat will have one “front door.”

2. Chat and learn (in up to 40 languages!)
When you open FloodChat, you’ll start a short conversation designed to help you:

• Identify what stage you’re in such as before, during, or after a flood.

• Get clear, renter-friendly steps to protect your home or belongings.

• Access trusted local resources, like 311, community programs, or city maps.

• Learn from real stories and examples shared by New Yorkers.

Each chat can be as long as you’d like, providing you actionable, local information, with no log-ins or downloads needed.

Different language? Yes! This is one of the benefits of using AI to do this. With FloodChat you dialogue in 35+ languages just by asking it to:

• Spanish (Español), French (Français), German (Deutsch), Portuguese (Português), Italian (Italiano), Dutch (Nederlands), Russian (Русский), Arabic (العربية), Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) – 中文, 汉语, 漢語, Japanese (日本語), Korean (한국어), Hindi (हिन्दी), Bengali (বাংলা), Urdu (اردو), Turkish (Türkçe), Polish, Ukrainian, Greek, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Swahili, Romanian, Czech, Hungarian, Filipino / Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Punjabi, Serbian / Croatian / Bosnian, Haitian Creole, and English

3. Find and do your solution
We wanted Flood Chat to suggest clear next steps, connect to city or local services, and learn from real stories shared by New Yorkers.

What’s The Goal

The main goal is to make it easier for 2.3M NYC renters to figure out “what do I do?” when it comes to stormwater/flooding risk.

Of that, an estimated 10% are in high flood risk areas.  There are ~4,300 “basement” apartments in NYC, and many more are street level.  So that is the primary audience for FloodChat v1.  As has been documented, this high-risk group may not know their risk, nor have alteration rights nor funds to protect where they live.

And every renter is not in the same situation.  And one question will lead to many sub-questions but also different ones depending on where they live, their language, their relationship with the landlord and the building, and their budget. 

By making it easier to find quality information in one place AND explore it (ask questions in the way they process information), they can ask questions about their specific situation, get answers to their questions…and in their language.  This is how we help renters across NYC understand stormwater risk but also help them take mitigation actions appropriate to them. We can help them prepare to “live with more water” by making the community engagement aspect more engaging, specific to their situation, and digestible versus overwhelming. 

Why Use AI and a Chatbot

To do this, we leverage the capabilities of AI to synthesize vast amounts of decentralized information and make it more accessible in a conversational, multi- language format.  That helps a diverse set of NYC residents get their questions answered in their language and at the level of detail they wont (or don’t want).

Also people like to text, chat, and see short posts, pictures, and videos…so let’s use that behavior to engage them on stormwater flood mitigation with a chatbot that chunks-up the steps they need to take into a friendly format.  

Good Sources

We went through hundreds of sources to pick the best ones we could find for flooding topics for renters. This way the content is higher quality vs random internet things. We tested and trained FloodChat to be accurate and source quality information. While we cannot say it returns the prefect response every time, we worked hard to ensure it had the best sources to enable high-quality customized responses. Some example sources:

For Partners

FloodChat partners with city agencies, community-based organizations, researchers, advocacy groups, local nonprofits, and engineering firms to improve how flood data and public guidance reach New Yorkers.

We’re building a shared platform that connects official resources with on-the-ground insights from residents. Your expertise helps ensure the information people receive is accurate, current, and localized.

Why Collaborate with FloodChat

• Amplify your content: Reach residents directly through borough-specific hyper-local chatbots.

• Create clear, actionable steps: Turn reports and PDFs into direct support and instructions that help answer any and all questions people have.

• Validate on the ground: Use FloodChat’s user feedback to spot emerging flood risks or information gaps.

How to Get Involved

We make it easy to integrate your materials into FloodChat’s source library.
Partners can share existing PDFs, datasets, or videos, which are converted into searchable, thumbnail-based resources with consistent metadata tagging (borough, topic, building type, and stage of flooding).

If you are interested in getting involved, here are some paths forward:

• Share with us local flood resources, maps, or stories to add to the FloodChat source database. We cite all of our sources and collaborations on this page for folks to reference.

• Embed FloodChat on your organization’s website to help residents connect faster. Chat with us to learn how you can get FloodChat on your page.

• Partner with us on community workshops or data collaborations. We host in-person events to meet with folks directly.

Reach out to [email protected] if you are interested in participating.

Data Privacy

FloodChat is built for public learning and is based on the privacy policy of Open AI. You do not need to share personally identifiable information to use FloodChat but anything you do share within FloodChat falls under their privacy policy.

Outside of that, for the FloodChat team, we do not collect or store personal information beyond what you choose to share in our feedback Google Form, which can include a transcript of your session (optional if you copy and paste it) and an email or cell (also optional), depending on if and what you enter for the incentive.

Any questions email us: [email protected] 

Contact

Reach out to [email protected]