Greater Long Island coverage is funded in part by Toresco & Simonelli, a boutique injury and family law firm in West Islip. They fight for their clients. Click here to learn more and to get in touch.
Today’s potent rush-hour rainstorm swamped the New York metropolitan area, shutting down parts of the city’s subway system, flooding streets and highways, and delaying flights into LaGuardia Airport.
The situation has grown perilous enough for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency for Long Island, New York City and the Hudson Valley.
Up to five inches of rain fell in some areas overnight, and as much as seven inches more was expected across the day, the governor said Friday morning. The National Weather Service has a flood watch advisory in effect through late tonight.
By midday, although there was a break in the clouds, New York City 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.
No storm-related deaths or critical injuries had been reported as of midday, city officials said. But residents struggled to get around the waterlogged metropolis.
Traffic hit a standstill, with water above cars’ tires, on a stretch of the FDR Drive — a major artery along the east side of Manhattan. Some drivers abandoned their vehicles.
New York City emergency officials have issued a travel advisory as heavy rain and flooding hits https://t.co/E30q97yK2O pic.twitter.com/xw1EgGvXmM
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 29, 2023
Priscilla Fontallio said she had been stranded in her car, which was on a piece of the highway that wasn’t flooded but wasn’t moving, for three hours as of 11 a.m.
“Never seen anything like this in my life,” she said.
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 sidewalks, 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 neighborhood. He had tried to take a bus, then a train.
“When it stops the buses, you know it’s bad,” he said. Bus service was severely disrupted citywide, according to the the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
A Brooklyn elementary was evacuated because its boiler was smoking, possibly because water got in, Schools Chancellor David Banks said at the news briefing. Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala said that over 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) of rain fell in a single hour at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, overwhelming the surrounding drainage systems.
Elsewhere, photos and video posted on social media showed water pouring into subway stations and basements.
Dominic Ramunni, a meteorolgist at the National Weather Service in New York, said by phone that Friday’s rains were due to a coastal storm, with low pressure off the East Coast helping to bring in some deep moisture from the Atlantic Ocean.
“This will be one of the wettest days in quite some time,” he said.
State of emergency was declared in NYC, Long Island, & Hudson Valley due to extreme flooding. pic.twitter.com/B6rQfYjr6D
— Aldrich (@observer888888) September 29, 2023
Virtually every subway line was at least partly suspended, rerouted or running with delays.
Flights into LaGuardia were briefly halted Friday morning, and then delayed, because of water in the airport’s refueling area. Flooding also forced the closure of one of the airport’s three terminals.
A little over two years ago, the remnants of Hurricane Ida dropped record-breaking rain on the Northeast and killed at least 13 people in New York City, most of whom were in flooded basement apartments.
New York City officials said they received reports of six basement apartments that had flooded, but all the occupants got out safely. Hochul pleaded with residents to evacuate their homes if the water starts to rise.
🌊NYC Flooding Alert!
— FlashFactsHub (@FlashFactsHub) September 29, 2023
NYC, Long Island & Hudson Valley under state of emergency due to intense flooding. Brooklyn heavily affected. Stay tuned for Mayor Adams' briefing on CBS News New York.
🚨Brooklyn's Reynoso: "Widespread flooding… in communication with mayor & governor."… pic.twitter.com/tJQG3TRjue
“People need to take this extremely seriously,” the governor said.
Hochul warned New Yorkers on Thursday night of a forecast that called for two to three inches of rain, with five inches or more possible in some places.
“We anticipate, we warn, we prepare. But then when it hits and you have five inches in the last 12 hours — three in the last hour this morning — that’s a scale that we’re not accustomed to dealing with,” the governor told TV station 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.
Top photo: In this photo taken from video, traffic makes its way through flood waters along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway , Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)