>> this is "eyewitness news upclose with diana williams." >> it was nearly six months ago channel 7 "eyewitness news" reporter lisa colagrossi suddenly dies after suffering a brain aneurysm -- now her husband on a mission, a personal crusade, to raise awareness about aneurysms and increase research to try to prevent more deaths. this morning, he joins us, along with a neurosurgeon, to discuss a problem that affects tens of thousands of americans every year, often without any kind of warning. but, first, new york city spending $100 million as it looks for ways to try to protect lower manhattan in case of another major disaster like superstorm sandy nearly three years ago. good morning, everyone, and welcome to "upclose." i'm bill ritter, in for diana williams. we don't yet know what the berm

and flood walls would look like to keep waters out in case we get major flooding in lower manhattan in any kind of future storm. >> superstorm sandy now considered the second-costliest storm in u.s. history, and it took its toll on the country's biggest city. in parts of lower manhattan, 14 feet of water. seven subway lines under the east river were shut down. >> there we go. >> the mayor helped put together "go bags" with flashlights and batteries and announced new york city will spend $100 million on a new effort -- building berms and flood walls to try to hold back the east river. >> for people in this community, it's very vivid what it means, that there is a still threat out there. and we don't take any of it lightly. >> we don't yet know what the berms and flood walls will look like, but the city is spending that extra $100 million, hoping to attract even more federal money -- anything to protect lives and some of the world's most expensive real estate. >> that could definitely happen again 'cause we're in a red zone. it's like a hill -- it goes down.

so, i'm on the top. like, all these other buildings back here get flooded. >> do you worry about it happening again? >> yeah, i'm scared of working out on the river because [indistinct] >> the mayor's announcement comes on the 10th anniversary of katrina and only a couple months from the third anniversary of sandy -- storms that have forever changed america and how we respond to warmer, more volatile weather. >> we learned some painful lessons from katrina, and we learned some painful lessons from sandy, and we're trying to do something about those lessons because we have not solved global warming. we know that there's so much more to do. >> so, can we protect ourselves? and how to do that and do it well -- can we really be stronger than the storm? joining us this morning to discuss this in depth -- daniel zarrilli, director of the mayor's office of recovery and resiliency, and jonathan jenkins, the assistant commissioner for logistics for new york city's office of emergency management, better known to most of us as oem. gentlemen, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having us. >> so, can we protect ourselves? let's start with you.

>> so, hurricane sandy really highlighted a lot of our vulnerabilities that we face due to both coastal storms, as well as sea-level rise, and what the city's done is put in place a comprehensive resiliency plan to make that sure we can both reduce that risk and get back to business better and stronger in the event of another disaster. so we're pursuing a $20 billion resiliency program all across the city, and the announcement in lower manhattan is a key piece of that program, where we're investing $100 million and looking to attract additional dollars from the federal government to pursue a series of integrated flood-protection-system investments that can reduce that risk in lower manhattan. >> before we get to the specifics of that, $100 million is a whole lot of money, but i was an economics and accounting major, and i'm thinking that that's not gonna pay for everything, so really you're spending this money completely dependent on getting some federal money to do this, but there's no guarantee of that. >> so, we are entering what's called the national disaster resilience competition, where we are seeking funds from the department of housing and urban

development, hud, where they are offering a maximum grant of potentially $500 million to the winning applicants, and so we're looking to show our commitment to this and to leverage that up to achieve even more dollars. 'cause you're right -- it's gonna take more than that, but we're gonna continue to take the steps forward on planning, community engagement, and design to make this more of a reality, and then we're gonna be making those investments. >> jonathan, you're with oem. this a big gamble because there's no guarantee that you'll get that money, the city will get all that money. on the other hand, it's a big economic engine in lower manhattan that drives much of the economy across the country, and you're also gambling that the feds will like that and think that's a good investment to put into it. >> absolutely, and, you know, the federal government funds a lot of our recovery and preparedness efforts. you know, for us, they fund a lot of our ready new york activities and a lot of our planning efforts, and so our office dovetails very nicely into the work that dan's office is undertaking in terms of recovery and resiliency. for us, we are preparedness, and preparedness begins at home, and there's a direct relationship between preparedness and resiliency.

to be better prepared, you have to be resilient, and to be resilient, you have to be better prepared, so i think that this is a really good opportunity for everybody involved. >> so, before we get into the weeds or the marshes here -- the rising waters -- your two offices then work together when you guys come up with plans? when you're coming up with a plan, you run it by that office? >> yeah, very close coordination. their office integrates things called the hazard mitigation plan into our long-term resiliency programs, so there's a cross-pollination of efforts. it's a really strong >> the focus is on lower manhattan, but there are other focusing on. manhattan. what do these berms and walls look like? are we putting up a great wall of china? city? what are we looking at? >> no, so it's fundamental to our vision is that we do not want to cut ourselves off from the waterfront and just build a wall around the entire waterfront and never be able to enjoy that. what we're looking to do is to put investments in place -- what we're calling integrated flood protection -- that integrates into the neighborhood, reduces risk when there is a flooding event, but also serves as a community amenity in all those times when there isn't a flooding event, and so building

in landscaping features, perhaps deployable systems that can be put in place in advance of a storm that can then become the flood protection. and that's what we're gonna be designing over the next several months with a team of consultants that we're looking to bring on board to really put it into practice what that's going to look like, because it's gonna look different in every part of the city. >> i remember under mayor bloomberg, there was, after sandy, a proposal to have grates in the street, and then they would rise up, lift up -- it'll have some sort of hydraulic system -- in case we needed to wall that off. is it much different than that? >> so, those are the types of things that we're still taking a hard look at, and now, with this commitment of dollars by mayor de blasio, we're gonna be taking the steps to start designing those systems in lower manhattan. >> so it won't cost us $100 million to build -- it will cost $100 million perhaps to design and run it through all the procedures. >> that's probably a little too high for just the design costs, but, yes, we're taking the steps now to do the design. we're engaging with the public, which is really critical, is that we engage with the local communities and stakeholders and local leaders into this climate-adaptation process to

make sure we're investing in the way that makes the most sense for the neighborhoods. >> and so this is gonna be a public process -- we're gonna hear from the public on this? >> yeah, i mean, just like dan mentioned. our hazard mitigation plan, for example, there is a public comment period for that with their work. it relates to our response activities, as well, and our planning efforts because i think we're all adapting to rising sea levels, the lessons learned from hurricane sandy. and i think that you can back as far as hurricane irene and lessons we learned from hurricane katrina. i think that, with changes in environment, i think it's gonna affect all city agencies and how we respond with all our partners. >> just for the record, meteorologists call it superstorm sandy because, when it hit here, it wasn't necessarily a hurricane, and it was more complicated than that. you called it a hurricane. >> i think it's just terminology. i mean, yes, it was very complicated. i think that it was a changing storm the entire event, but i think that, with the lessons that we've from that, we've changed and enhanced our evacuation zones in the city. we used to have zones "a," "b,"

and "c." now it's a little more detailed and scientific. there's zones 1 through 6. we can order evacuations and plan more accordingly, and that was directly related to lessons we learned during sandy. >> since we have never done this before and you're gonna have public comment... when we rebuilt ground zero in lower manhattan -- and we now see what's going on there -- it took a decade, more than a decade for it to happen, and some of it's still not done. are we gonna be faced with this? are we gonna have several other storms before something is finally in place? >> well, definitely -- hopefully not yes to that question, because we are working aggressively to put in place the plans we have now. and it could take several years, but it's also -- this is not a one-and-done sort of investment that we're talking about. we want to continue to adapt, and we're gonna continue monitoring sea-level rise over time to make sure we can continue to build on those investments as the sea-level rise becomes more and more real and whether it's moving faster or slower than we expect. >> there are some people who say rising. they are against the concept of

climate change or against that as the reason for this. you guys have just -- and we heard the mayor said -- you're accepting that as fact, right? >> we've already seen a foot of sea-level rise in new york since 1900, and that's only looking to accelerate. we work with a group of academics called the new york city panel on climate change that advise us on the projections and what it's gonna mean locally here. and we're projecting that, by the 2050s, we could see, at the high end of the projections, 2 feet of sea-level rise here in new york city, and that's what we're planning for. >> frightening thought. some of the critics i talk to say that hardening the lower part of manhattan does little for exposing the rest of the city. how are you addressing the rest of the city, like on the atlantic side? >> yeah, so, we've got programs that we are doing, advancing major projects on the coast of staten island, on the east shore. we're working with the army corps there. we're working with the army corps on the rockaway peninsula and in jamaica bay. we've got investments happening right now in sea gate on the coney island peninsula, and we've got other projects that we're developing in red hook, in breezy point, in hunts point. all over the city, there's major investments that are happening to reduce this risk. >> one sea expert i talked to

talked about horizontal levees, and i'm not sure what that means, but it means restoring tidal marshes around the city and airports and infrastructure, including what you said, the rockaway and jamaica bay. and staten island, what do you do? you know, after sandy, there were a lot of really in-depth studies and stories that were reported about staten island and what it was meant to be, a sponge kind of thing to protect us, and now we have all that development. >> well, so, we are working to make sure that we're reducing risk for where we have people now, and you're right -- the investments in wetlands and other natural infrastructure is a key part of our program, particularly in places like jamaica bay or in parts of staten island, as well. >> let's talk about preparedness because, you know, your office, oem, spends a lot of time talking about preparedness. are new yorkers prepared? have we learned lessons from 9/11, from the power outage in '03, from superstorm sandy? have we learned those lessons? >> i think so, you know, and september is national preparedness month. we've been working pretty closely with fema and the ad council. this year's campaign is, "don't wait. communicate." you know, we want to target safety and preparedness for all

new yorkers, and that starts at home, from the youngest to the most senior. and our ready new york campaign, you know, we go out, we do events, and during september, we're gonna be highlighting a lot more in terms of public outreach and communication. you know, we want to make sure that folks understand and have an emergency preparedness plan at home, know how to communicate with their family members, have go bags. >> do you guys have go bags? are you ready at home? >> yeah. >> i do. >> i have plenty of duct tape from a long time ago -- still ready if you guys want to have any. these storms of the century are happening more frequently. are we gonna see more in the next 10 years? >> so what the climate scientists are telling us is that the frequency of the most intense storms is getting more frequent, so it's the bigger storms that are becoming more frequent, but we're also seeing the chronic effects of sea-level rise, and that is arguably much more challenging to deal with 'cause it doesn't stop. >> well, you guys figure out the berms and the walls, and we'll have to just make sure we have go bags and water and food supplies for our family. thank you very much, gentlemen. appreciate it. dan zarrilli of the mayor's

office of recovery and of oem. >> thank you. tackling. when we come back, we're gonna switch topics and talk about a silent killer -- aneurysms. they often strike without warning, and it was indeed a brain aneurysm that killed our friend and colleague, lisa colagrossi of "eyewitness news." coming up next -- her husband action. he joins us along with a neurosurgeon to discuss a medical problem that hits tens of thousands of americans every year, many of them fatally.

>> welcome back to "upclose." we're gonna talk about a health issue that affects so many and for us here at "eyewitness news," it's also very personal. last march, my colleague lisa colagrossi, returning to the station after doing a morning live shot, like she did every morning -- she was talking, and she was laughing with a photographer -- and then, without warning, she suddenly suffered a brain aneurysm. she was just 49 when she died. 30,000 to 40,000 people in the u.s. suffer a ruptured brain aneurysm every year. that is one in every 18 or so minutes. about 50% of all ruptured brain aneurysms are fatal, and of those who survive, 66% suffer some kind of permanent neurological deficit -- all very scary. and then there is this last statistic -- it's estimated 6 million americans have an un-ruptured brain aneurysm, or about one out of every 50 people, and that is indeed why they call it a silent killer. our friend lisa was one of those

6 million, and now, in her memory and in her honor, her husband, todd crawford, is on a mission, a personal crusade, to raise awareness about brain aneurysms and to raise money for research, which is horribly deficient in studying. todd joins us this morning, as does dr. j mocco. he's professor of neurosurgery at mount sinai hospital. he's also vice chair for education of neurosurgery there. and, gentlemen, thank you so much. and, todd, it is great to see you, and it goes without saying -- not like you, of course, and your boys -- but we miss lisa so terribly, and i know you do. >> terribly, and if i said we were doing okay, it'd be a slight lie. it's a very big adjustment. the boys are devastated at not ever having their mom again, but it's a -- we'll be okay. it's just a very long, slow process, and we're adjusting to our new normal. >> tell us about davis and evan, because they were -- our viewers responded so lovingly to what happened, and they were affected by her death, as well. >> tremendously, and the

outpouring of love and support across the country was tremendous, but particularly here at her station. and, you know, obviously, it's an enormous loss for them, and, you know, the pendulum swings. it's like a roller coaster emotionally from highs to lows. but they just attended a grief camp up in maine last week called experience camps, which is tremendous, and bonded with a lot of kids up there who were in the same situation. and, you know, they'll be okay longer term, but it's gonna be a very, very rocky road and years before they really begin to look forward. >> i've talked to so many parents who have lost -- their children they have to raise by themselves because the spouse has died. 9/11 was a great example of that. and i know it's difficult 'cause you're grieving, too, but you're also having to be a dad and the sole parent, and you're thinking about them and less so about yourself. >> so, when something like this happens, bill, you can either go one of two ways.

you can either climb into a dark, deep hole and stay there -- and a lot of days, i'll be honest, are very difficult to get out of bed -- or you can try to bring meaning to something like this and affect positive change and try to save lives of others going forwards, to spare other families from the heartbreak and pain that we've experienced. and i've got to be a role model, as you said, to those two boys, and i want to show them how to take on adversity head on. >> so, at some point in this grieving process, which has not been that long -- less than seven months, less than six months. >> five. >> five months. yeah, 5 months so far. it just seems like a long time ago. >> yeah. >> you made the decision to turn your grief into action, and that's what you're doing. why did you decide to focus on this? and what caused you, besides lisa's death -- what made you say, "oh, my gosh, nobody knows about this"? >> i think two things -- number one, the unconditional love that lisa and i had for one another, a very special marriage that we shared as a family, but, secondly, i know that, had she survived her brain aneurysm

rupture, she probably would not have been able to continue the work here at channel 7, and she would have wanted to get involved, to educate others, to save lives, and to save other families from going through what we are. >> so, what did you discover and doing your research? >> well, there's a lot. we know a lot more today than we knew five months ago. and what we understand and know is that -- you cited some of the numbers. just to put it in perspective, the brain aneurysms are just as big as breast cancer and als in this country. women are affected almost 50% more -- along with african-americans -- than any other group. and so there's a lot of work that needs to be done. this is a disease that is greatly underfunded. the research is probably 10 years behind where it needs to be, but with the help of great doctors like to my left, we're gonna change the landscape, and we're going to make a very big difference over the next several years.

>> your personal story when you try to take action, i assume, carries a little more weight than if you were just executive director of some organization 'cause it was a job. >> yeah, right, and that fuels me and motivates me. absolutely right. and there are a lot of people out there who -- you know, the numbers are greatly underreported, and i swear that there are a number of people -- probably almost everyone knows somebody who has either directly or been indirectly affected by a brain aneurysm in this country. >> dr. mocco, why is this such an underfunded disease and condition? and, you know, i think the viewers are watching this right now going, "oh, my gosh, you mean that i could be one of those 6 million. i could be like lisa and not have any kind of symptoms." >> i think that this is one of those diseases that is particularly striking because it hurts young people oftentimes, people in the prime of their

lives, like lisa was, and people who still have children and countless opportunities to do great things and to contribute to the world. and yet it's still a limited number of people, say 40,000 people in total across the nation. when you talk about heart disease or some of these bigger, more prevalent diseases, sometimes i think it gets overlooked. >> because the only symptom oftentimes is when you die. >> that's correct. >> that's it, and that's just frightening, i think, to most of us. if you have cancer, they may discover that. if you have a heart disease, they'll probably discover that. we don't hear a lot of times people just dropping dead from a heart attack anymore like we used to. you track this. how can you track this? is there a way to prevent it? what are the signs to look for? >> well, so, unfortunately, that's true. most of the time, the first symptom someone has is the symptom of the aneurysm rupturing. now, we can still do great things to help people who have aneurysms rupture. if someone has a severe, new headache that's not like if they

have typical migraines, but is something new, intense, that is something to pay attention to, certainly. but there are lots of other things to pay attention to. sometimes, aneurysms can present with problems with vision, double vision. if you have a new, severe headache and any kind of vision complaints or problems, that's something to pay attention to. >> but most of us don't. we'll just take a couple aspirin or advil, and you're all right, right? >> how many people say, "well, know? but this is not that different from when we were notifying the world in the '70 and '80s about, if you have chest pain and arm heaviness, that's a heart attack. do. also, some percentage of aneurysms run in families. and so, for people that have had relatives with aneurysms, they certainly should talk to a doctor about whether or not they should be screened, as well, because a significant percentage of them should be screened. >> so, like any other disease, like prostate cancer, breast cancer, if you have a history of that in your family, you should be aware of that. of it. >> what are we talking about, an mri on the brain to see if there's anything there? >> there's a couple different tests.

probably the best one, if someone can get, is a type of mri called an mra, and it's noninvasive, it's relatively simple, and it provides very good resolution to find out if someone has an aneurysm. >> did lisa have any family history of aneurysm? >> none. and the risk factors, which are smoking, hypertension, drug/alcohol abuse, none of those applied to lisa, either. so that's why this disease, i say that there's so much more to learn. we've just scratched the surface in terms of what we know, because none of those things applied to lisa. she didn't have anything in her family history, going back at least two generations, that we're aware of. >> the majority of patients are that way. it's the minority that have family histories, but it's still something to be aware of. >> i read somewhere in one of the interviews you did, when you were lobbying for more research money, that she had a couple headaches, and if you knew then what you know know -- that's got to be very difficult. >> and it's not your average headache. everybody describes it. it's something out of the norm.

everybody describes it the same way, bill -- "it is the worst headache of my life. my head is killing me." >> doctors, we actually write in the chart, in any hospital, "w.h.o.l. the patients complaining of worst headache of their life." that's the lingo because everyone uses the same words. >> w.h.o.l. if you had known that, todd -- i this. i mean, it's heartbreaking. >> i did ask her about three weeks after she was complaining of them, as she walked through the door one day at 2:00, and i said, "don't you think we should go get that checked?" had i known about the signs and symptoms for brain aneurysms and what a brain aneurysm was, bill, i would have insisted. we would have gone to the e.r. that night, and i would have insisted on a mra. >> i'm gonna ask you guys to stick around for a couple minutes while we take a quick break. i want to, when i come back -- each of you involved in causes to actually make this happen. i want to get specific with that. when we come back, we'll continue our conversation with

todd crawford, husband of our friend lisa colagrossi, and with dr. j mocco of mount sinai.

stay with us.

>> welcome back to "upclose." we are continuing our conversation about brain aneurysms, the silent killer -- what you can do about it, how to prevent it, how to even know if you're at risk for it. todd crawford is here, the husband of our great friend lisa colagrossi, who died last march, and dr. j mocco of mount sinai. each of you involved with ways to deal with this. todd, let me start with you -- your goals here. you're turning your grief into action. tell me what you're trying to do. >> so we're announcing today that we're launching the lisa colagrossi foundation, which we hope will become the largest private funder of brain-aneurysm programs focused in the area of awareness, education, research, and support throughout the country, going forward. as part of that, we are also

launching today the first ever national fundraising campaign, called "lisa's lucky 7 challenge." and we are encouraging people across the country, over the next seven months, to log on to lisalegacy7.org, make a donation in an amount that has the number seven in it. >> her lucky number -- she worked at channel 7. you want to raise $7 million over the next 7 months. >> so a minimum of $7 -- could be $70, could be $700 -- and then to tweet, go to facebook, go turn to social media, and challenge 7 -- identify your "lucky 7" friends and challenge them to do the same. so we just need a million people across this country to donate $7 each, and we'll hit our goal of raising $7 million over the next 7 months. >> i will tweet it out and facebook it out when we get off the air here, i promise. dr. mocco, tell me about yours. you are backing a foundation effort for a woman who just dropped dead from an aneurysm in 2007.

>> young, vibrant woman, triathlete -- so often the story -- who suffered a brain aneurysm and didn't recover. and so we're having a run in riverside park to raise awareness and hopefully raise research. >> october 17th, saturday -- the benefit for brain aneurysm research. both of you -- so personal a story, and i thank you for joining us this morning. todd, our love is always with your family and your boys, your beautiful boys. >> appreciate it. >> thank you both very much. [ exhales deeply ] that'll do it for this edition of "upclose." if you missed any of today's programs, you can catch it again on our website, abc7ny. don't forget to donate. you can see much more information on our website about that. thank you all for watching. i'm bill ritter, in for diana williams. and for all of us here at channel 7, enjoy the rest of your week.