National Weather Service Observations of Flash Floods in New York City, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Jersey City, and Central Park
The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning for parts of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn in the afternoon. There were additional warnings for the Bronx, Staten Island, and Jersey City. The Weather Service said that flash flooding would affect highways and streets.
The governor urged New Yorkers to stay at home if they could and said that state officials were preparing flood rescue teams in Nassau and Westchester counties in the event of any flash floods in the suburbs. Adams was going to hold a news conference with the governor.
Video showed cars driving through flooded roads covered under inches of rainfall in parts of Queens and Brooklyn, as streets overflowed and sidewalks became submerged.
As of 10 a.m., 4.28 inches of rain had fallen in Central Park since Thursday night, according to the Weather Service, 3.90 inches of it since midnight. The Weather Office said that more than half a foot of rain had fallen in Brooklyn.
Some 8.65 inches (21.97 centimeters) of rain had fallen at John F. Kennedy Airport by nightfall Friday, surpassing the record for any September day set during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.
Large-Scale New York Rain Causes Widespread Flooding: a Citywide Suspended and a Street Scattered Train
Almost all of the subway lines were at least partially suspended or running behind schedule. Metro-North commuter rail service from Manhattan was suspended for much of the day but began resuming by evening. The Long Island Rail Road was snarled, 44 of the city’s 3,500 buses became stranded and bus service was disrupted citywide, transit officials said.
Optimists headed to the A train stop at High Street, a few blocks away, where trains were meant to be running. A majority of the passengers were headed to Manhattan when an employee of the Long Island Railroad advised them to take the train.
Blocks away, as water swept downhill, one girl huddled close to a companion, scolding herself for leaving her rain gear at home. The boy ducked out of harms way when the younger peer had a pink umbrella that threatened to stab him.
Floodwaters spilled onto the sidewalks on the Upper East Side. Many people tried to brave the morning commute, bundling children into rain jackets and sprinting toward the Q station on the corner of 83rd Street and Second Avenue in water-logged shoes. The man ran down a flooded sidewalk despite the rain.
All lanes of the Cross Island Expressway were closed because of flooding and part of the F.D.R. drive was experiencing delays. The area around Kennedy International Airport received more than 3 inches of rain. Travelers were told not to go to the area around Terminal A at La Guardia.
Source: Heavy Rain Causes Widespread Flooding in New York
The New York City Floods Revealed by the Superstorm Ida, and Residents of a Building in Woodside, Queens
People living in the city’s basement apartments are at risk of being killed by heavy rains. Many of the apartments, which are often rented to immigrants or others desperate for an affordable place to live, are not allowed to be rented legally and do not have adequate means of escape should water come rushing in.
In an interview with NBC, the governor said that no children were in danger, though she said that some schools were experiencing flooding.
Some of the contributors are Mihir Zaveri, Andrew Keh, and Emma Fitzsimmons.
According to weather and city officials, parts of Brooklyn received more than 20 inches (48.41 centimeters), with at least one place recording 2.5 inches in just one hour.
After the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped record-breaking rain on the Northeast, at least 13 people in New York City died in flooded basement apartments. Friday’s storm stirred frightening memories, despite no deaths or severe injuries being reported.
Ida killed three of Joy Wong’s neighbors, including a toddler. And on Friday, water began lapping against the front door of her building in Woodside, Queens.
The waterfilled building’s basement was almost to the ceiling within minutes. After the family’s deaths in 2021, the basement was turned into a recreation room. It has now been destroyed.
New York swamped by record-breaking rainfall as more downpours expected Saturday – a Manhattan student’s experience at Grand Central Terminal
Malachi Clark, a high school student, was trying to get to his home by subway and bus when the buses stopped. Many of the public school students are disabled and there are not many buses that can bring them to school.
Mike Tags was among the long line of people who snaked from the ticket counter at Grand Central Terminal. Railroad employees had suggested possible workarounds, but he wondered whether they would work out.
Traffic hit a standstill earlier in the day on a stretch of the FDR Drive, a major artery along Manhattan’s east side. Some people abandoned their cars with water above them.
The woman said her car was stuck on a piece of the highway where it wasn’t flooded but wasn’t moving.
Flights into LaGuardia were briefly halted in the morning, and then delayed, because of water in the refueling area. Flooding also forced the closure of one of the airport’s three terminals for several hours. Terminal A resumed normal operations around 8 p.m.
The school in Brooklyn was evacuated because of the boiler being smoking, Chancellor David Banks said. Crystal Hudson said in an email that another school in Brooklyn was in need of volunteers to help clean up their classrooms.
The New York Rangers and New York Islanders postponed a preseason hockey game on Long Island. At the Central Park Zoo, a sea lion swam out of her pool. After the zoo was closed due to the weather, she looked around and returned to the pool.
Source: New York swamped by record-breaking rainfall as more downpours expected Saturday
Why is there so much rain? How Tropical Storm Ophelia has parked itself over New York and how it’s coming from the West
In Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, Jessie Lawrence awoke to the sound of rain dripping from the ceiling of her fourth-floor apartment and heard strange sounds outside her front door.
She opened the door to find “the water was coming in thicker and louder,” pouring into the hallway and flowing down the stairs, she said. There was leaking rain on the roof.
Why is there so much rain? Ross Dickman of the National Weather Service said that at a time of the year when the ocean’s favorable for storms, the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia over the Atlantic Ocean combined with a mid-latitude system arriving from the west are particularly juicy. The storm parked itself over New York for 12 hours.
The weather service had warned of 3 to 5 inches (7.5 to 13 centimeters) of rain and told emergency managers to expect more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) in some places, Dickman said.
According to atmospheric scientists, as the planet warms storms form in a hotter atmosphere that can hold more precipitation, making it more frequent.