New York City just felt the brunt of such disruptions from a persistent rainstorm. The storm flooded many basements, causing heartbreaking fatalities in those circumstances. The nor’easter closed most major roadways and Turnpike tunnels, departing chaos at LaGuardia Airport. Almost two feet of rain actually broke records that had been set years ago, and stranding many in the process.
In the immediate wake of the storm, authorities pulled two bodies, both men, from flooded basements. The initial casualty, a 43-year-old African man, was discovered lying in the boiler room of a Manhattan apartment house. The second victim, a 39-year-old man, was discovered by a scuba team in the basement of a townhouse in Brooklyn after firefighters received a call about a person trapped around 4:30 PM.
The heavy rainstorm that rolled through the valley brought some wild weather downtown. At LaGuardia Airport, the rainfall reached 1.97 inches (5 cm), a new record breaking the previous tally of 1.18 inches (3 cm) set back in 1955. Central Park was inundated, getting a whopping 1.8 inches (4.57 cm) of rainfall. This amazing total broke the 1.64 inches (4.17 cm) record from 1917 by a wide margin.
As Mayor Eric Adams said in his statement on the storm’s toll, even a city built as strongly as New York can only do so much.
“When you look at the amount of water that was coming down, our sewer systems are just not built to handle that. It was a steady rain, throughout” – Mayor Eric Adams.
The storm’s intensity shifted in the hour, creating an extremely perilous condition for residents, especially those in basement apartments. This incident has raised concerns about the safety of such living arrangements, especially in light of a tragic history. Twelve individuals died in similar circumstances during heavy rainfall in 2021.
Police still haven’t released the names of the dead men. The grim discovery of their bodies underscores the hazards faced by those living in vulnerable housing conditions across the city.
As recovery efforts continue, city officials are likely to evaluate the preparedness and resilience of infrastructure to withstand such extreme weather events in the future.