NEW YORK: Torrential downpours after a week of mostly steady rainfall brought flash flooding to New York City on Friday, disrupting subway service, inundating ground-level apartments and turning some streets into small lakes.
Almost eight inches (20 cm or 200 mm) of rain fell in some parts of the most populous city in the US. Another few inches could fall in the region before the storm system pushed out to sea later on Friday, forecasters said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul warned of “life-threatening” floods and declared a state of emergency for New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley. Some National Guard troops were deployed to assist in the response.
In Mamaroneck, a Westchester County suburb north of the city, emergency officials used inflatable rafts to rescue people trapped in buildings by floods.
Flooding caused major disruptions to New York’s subway system and the Metro North commuter rail service, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which operates both.
Some subway lines were suspended entirely, and many stations were closed. Some bus routes slowed to a crawl, trapping riders for hours. Officials warned some New Yorkers to avoid traveling unless they were fleeing a flooded area.
The rain capped one of New York’s wettest Septembers on record, with 13.74 inches (34.9 cm) of rain falling during the month as of 11 AM on Friday, and more on the way, said Dominic Ramunni, a National Weather Service forecaster.
The all-time high was set in 1882 when 16.82 inches (42.72 cm) fell in September. “I don’t know if we’ll beat the record, but we’ll come close,” Ramunni said.
It was the rainiest day at the city’s John F. Kennedy International Airport since records began in 1948, the New York office of the National Weather Service said, citing preliminary data.
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Despite the warnings, the city’s public schools were open for the day. Some buildings experienced flooding but no operations were affected, a district spokesperson said.
At least one suburban district, Bronxville just north of New York, dismissed students early because of the worsening flooding. Floodwaters marooned vehicles on streets and poured into subway stations, disrupting the journeys of millions of commuters.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose office issued a “travel advisory” late on Thursday night, defended his administration’s response at a press conference saying that “all of the necessary precautions were taken.”
In neighbouring New Jersey, low-lying Hoboken, a city directly across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, declared a state of emergency, with all but one of the southern routes into town under water.
Hoboken’s newly installed floodgates, designed to close automatically when water pooled on roadways, were down, blocking many streets to vehicular traffic.
Friday’s deluge followed a bout of heavy downpours and strong winds last weekend from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia. That storm soaked New York City and caused widespread power outages in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In New York, intermittent rain this week further saturated the ground, setting up conditions conducive to flash flooding.
