Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a clear and urgent message for homeowners along Lake Ontario: If there was flooding along your property in 2017, call and ask for help now.

“If the waves pick up, or if we get more rain, we’ll have another flooding situation,” he said. “We’re preparing now for the reoccurrence of the 2017 flooding situation which, as people remember, was devastating and caused a lot of damage and caused a lot of hardships for thousands of New Yorkers.”

He’s issued an emergency order for the Lake Ontario shoreline to help speed the process of getting help to home and businesses owners, including access to inflatable barriers and sandbags to keep water away.  The best course of action is preparation, he said.

Cuomo urged people who experienced flooding 2017 to pick up the phone and call for help now.

"If you are a homeowner or business that was damaged in 2017 - prepare for a redux of the same situation,” he said. “The flooding will come where the flooding came. Let's do everything we can to get ahead of it and prepare for it. Once the flooding happens, it's too late to put precautions in place. You can't get people in there. You can get equipment in there. So the time to prepare is now."