‘Life-threatening rainfall event’ slams New York and surrounding region
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NEW YORK – Heavy rainfall pounded New York City and the surrounding region on Friday, bringing flash floods, shutting down entire subway lines, turning major roadways into lakes and sending children to the upper floors of flooding schoolhouses.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency, urging people in the city to stay home and singling out those who live in basements to brace themselves for the worst.
State and city leaders implored residents not to underestimate a storm that flipped from falling rain to fire-hose torrents in minutes.
Ms Hochul called it a “life-threatening rainfall event”, and Mayor Eric Adams called the storm “something that we cannot take lightly and we are not taking lightly”.
The city’s residents, while largely caught by surprise, took heed and many stayed home and off the roads.
Citywide cellphone pings pushed alerts from the National Weather Service throughout the day, repeatedly extending a “considerable” flash-flood warning, a level reserved for extreme and rare rainfall events.
Cascading waterfalls shut down subway lines across much of the city, with service being halted even at major hubs like the Barclays Centre. Trains were rerouted with little warning.
“I have no idea what’s happening,” one subway conductor said as her Q train moved onto the E line. “I don’t know where we’re going.”
Commuters turned and ventured back home on foot through scenes of chaos and upheaval.
Heavy rain overnight in the north-eastern United States left parts of New York City underwater on Friday, partially paralysing subways and airports in the country’s financial capital.
PHOTO: AFP
Water gushed into brownstone basements in Park Slope. In Prospect Park, the landscape was altered by new creeks. In Queens, the storm was generational, making Friday the wettest day at Kennedy International Airport since modern record-keeping began.
The streets in Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn, a neighbourhood built on the slant of a hill, were engulfed in minutes in currents dotted with white caps, just as schools were opening their doors.
Boys and girls slogged through deep water on 11th Avenue to reach their elementary school classes, while neighbours with rakes tried to clear storm drains of dense fallen leaves.
The sense that city leaders were largely caught off guard promised to linger after the rain had stopped falling.
Mr Adams was swiftly criticised for not warning residents about the storm soon enough, and for waiting until noon on Friday to address New Yorkers.
Attention immediately turned to residents who live in flood zones, two years after the remnants of Hurricane Ida caused basement floods that killed 11 people in Queens.
Many of those apartments, which are often rented to immigrants or others desperate for an affordable place to live in, are not allowed to be rented legally and do not have adequate means of escape in a flood.
“Plan your escape route,” Ms Hochul said. “Don’t wait until water is over your knees before you leave. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”
The rain on Friday made this the second-wettest September in New York City history, according to weather service statistics. More than 35cm of rain has fallen in September, the most in over 140 years, when the city logged 42.8cm in September 1882.
The storm created havoc for the busiest streets and highways, flooding parts of F.D.R. Drive and closing down the Belt Parkway.
Many flights were cancelled or delayed at John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport.
The worst of the rain will leave Manhattan in the next few hours as the storm gradually heads east, said weather service meteorologist Dominic Ramunni.
“We’ve got Manhattan on the western edge of it now, with the heaviest rain over Queens and western Nassau County,” he said.
But he added: “We’re still dealing with it. We still have that fire hose of moisture coming on shore.”
The city’s residents, while largely caught by surprise, took heed and many stayed home and off the roads.
PHOTO: REUTERS
At the Central Park Zoo, the storm brought about an escape. The water rose so high that a female sea lion was able to breach her pool and venture out. She did not get far, with the zoo locked down and employees watching her carefully.
Like many New Yorkers on Friday, she decided she was better off at home.
“She explored the area before returning to the familiar surroundings of the pool”, said Mr Jim Breheny, an executive with the Wildlife Conservation Society, “and the company of the other two sea lions”. NYTIMES
