Rush-hour rainstorm causes transport chaos in New York City
29 September 2023, 21:44
Flights into LaGuardia Airport were briefly halted.
A rush-hour rainstorm has swamped New York City, shutting down parts of the subway system, flooding streets and highways, and delaying flights into LaGuardia Airport.
As much as 6.7in (17cm) of rain had fallen in parts of Brooklyn by midday, with at least one spot seeing 2.5in (6cm) in a single hour, according to weather and city officials.
The 6in (15cm) of rain at John F Kennedy Airport surpassed a record set during Hurricane Donna in September 1960, the National Weather Service said.
By midday, although there was a break in the clouds, Mayor Eric Adams urged people to stay put if possible.
“It is not over, and I don’t want these gaps in heavy rain to give the appearance that it is over,” he said at a news briefing. He and Ms Hochul, both Democrats, declared states of emergency.
No storm-related deaths or critical injuries had been reported as of midday, city officials said, but residents struggled to get around the waterlogged city.
Traffic was at a standstill, with water above cars’ tyres, on a stretch of FDR Drive — a major artery along the east side of Manhattan. Some drivers abandoned their vehicles.
Priscilla Fontallio said she had been stranded in her car, which was on a section of the highway that was not flooded but was not moving, for three hours.
“Never seen anything like this in my life,” she said.
Photos and video posted on social media showed water pouring into subway stations and basements.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs subway and commuter rail lines, urged residents of the nation’s most populous city to stay at home if they could.
Virtually every subway line was at least partly suspended, rerouted or running with delays, and two of the Metro-North Railroad’s three lines were suspended.
Flights into LaGuardia were briefly halted, and then delayed, on Friday morning because of water in the airport’s refuelling area. Flooding also forced the closure of one of the airport’s three terminals.
Towns and cities around New York City also experienced flooding, including Hoboken, New Jersey.
The deluge came less than three months after a storm caused deadly floods in New York’s Hudson Valley and left Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, submerged.
A little over two years ago, the remnants of Hurricane Ida dropped record-breaking rain on the north east and killed at least 13 people in New York City, most of whom were in flooded basement apartments. Overall, 50 people died from Virginia to Connecticut.
Ms Hochul warned New Yorkers on Thursday night about the heavy rain that was on its way.
“We anticipate, we warn, we prepare. But then when it hits and you have 5in in the last 12 hours — 3in in the last hour this morning — that’s a scale that we’re not accustomed to dealing with,” the Democrat told NY1 on Friday. But she added that New Yorkers “have to get used to this” because of climate change.
As the planet warms, storms are forming in a hotter atmosphere, making extreme rainfall more frequent, according to atmospheric scientists.
On a street in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, workers were up to their knees in water as they tried to unclog a drain while cardboard and other debris floated by.
As the rain briefly slowed, Brooklyn residents emerged from their homes to survey the damage and begin draining the water that reached the top of many basements doors. Some people arranged milk crates and wooden boards to cross the flooded pavements, with water close to waist-deep in the middle of some streets.
High school student Malachi Clark stared at a flooded intersection, unsure how to proceed as he tried to get home to Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood. He had tried to take a bus, then a train.
“When it stops the buses, you know it’s bad,” he said.
