US: Emergency Declared In New York City As Torrential Rain Floods Subways, Roads, Basements

New York City [US]: Roads were closed, subway services were disrupted and basements were overwhelmed in the New York City area after “dangerous and life-threatening” torrential rain surged across the concrete expanse on Friday, CNN reported.

A month’s worth of rain – more than 4 inches – fell over parts of Brooklyn in just three hours. Intense rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour were falling across the region, and the National Weather Service warned totals exceeding 8 inches “are increasingly likely” in parts of the tri-state area.

The heaviest rainfall began to ease across hard-hit portions of Manhattan and Brooklyn late Friday morning, but another round is expected in the afternoon and could reinvigorate dangerous flooding.

“This is a dangerous weather condition and it is not over,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a Friday morning news briefing.

“I don’t want those gaps in heavy rain to give the appearance that it is over, it is not,” CNN quoted him as saying.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley Friday morning. In an interview with New York’s WNBC-TV she urged residents to stay home because of widespread dangerous travel conditions.

“This is a very challenging weather event,” Hochul said. “This a life-threatening event. And I need all New Yorkers to heed that warning so we can keep them safe,” CNN quoted her saying.

Meanwhile, the firefighters performed rescue operation at six basements in New York City, which were flooded by torrents of water, CNN reported citing New York City Fire Department.

The water also found its way into 150 of New York City’s 1,400 schools, which remained open on Friday, New York City school chancellor David Banks said at a news briefing.
One school in Brooklyn evacuated when floodwater caused the school’s boiler to smoke, he said.

“Our kids are safe and we continue to monitor the situation,” Banks added.
The floodwater spilled into subways and onto railways and caused “major disruptions,” including suspensions of service on 10 train lines in Brooklyn and all three Metro-North train lines.

Governor Hochul said the city was deploying additional buses to help fill the gap caused by the train outages, CNN reported.

Floodwater also overwhelmed sewers and flooded roads in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Hoboken, New Jersey, forcing road closures and water rescues there, authorities announced.

The situation of air travel is also not fairing any better. Flight delays hit all three New York City area airports on Friday. Flooding inside the historic Marine Air Terminal in New York’s LaGuardia airport forced it to close

Notably, a travel advisory remains in effect for New York City through 6 am (local time) on Saturday with more flooding expected, CNN reported.

On the other hand, the New York tri-state area is facing a Level 3 of 4 “moderate” risk for flash flooding for the rest of the day Friday, the National Weather Service warned. Millions of New Yorkers received alerts from the weather service Friday morning warning of a “dangerous and life-threatening situation” with a “considerable” risk of flash flood damage.

Additionally, the flood threat stretched beyond New York City and will impact roughly 25 million people across the Northeast.

Heavy rain will expand north and east and impact a wide swath of southern New England through Friday evening. The heaviest rain in the region will center on Connecticut, where flash flood warnings were already in place on Friday afternoon. Rainfall of 3 to 4 inches slammed the southwestern portion of the state earlier Friday.

Meanwhile, 1-3 inches of rain is also possible from central Connecticut to portions of Rhode Island through Friday evening. Parts of Massachusetts, including Boston, could tally up widespread rainfall totals of 1-2 inches by the time the heaviest rain comes to an end Friday night, according to CNN.