17 dead as Hurricane Ida causes flash flooding in New York area

New York:

Flash flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed at least 17 people in the New York area overnight Thursday, including several who perished in their basements during the “historic” weather event.

Record-breaking rainfall, which triggered an unprecedented emergency flash flood warning for New York City, turned streets into rivers and shut down subway services as water cascaded over platforms on the tracks.

“I am 50 years old and have never seen so much rain,” said Metodija Mihajlov, whose basement in her Manhattan restaurant was flooded with three inches of water.

“It was like living in the jungle, like a tropical rain. Incredible. Everything is so strange this year,” he told AFP.

Hundreds of flights were canceled at LaGuardia and JFK airports, as well as Newark, where video showed a terminal inundated with rainwater.

“We’re all in the same boat. The nation is ready to help,” President Joe Biden said ahead of a Friday trip to the southern state of Louisiana, where Ida had previously destroyed buildings and left more than one million homes without electricity.

The floods closed major roads in several New York boroughs, including Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens, submerging cars and forcing firefighters to rescue hundreds of people.

Nine have died in New York City, including eight who could not escape from their basements, police said. The victims were between 2 and 86 years old.

“Among those MOST at risk during flash floods are those who live in unofficial basement dwellings that do not follow the safety codes necessary to save lives,” tweeted lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. .

“These are working class, immigrant and low income individuals and families,” she added.

Four other people have died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a spokesperson for the town’s mayor told AFP, while another death was confirmed in Passaic.

Three died in Montgomery County outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a local official confirmed.

Ida opened a path of destruction north after hitting Louisiana over the weekend, causing severe flooding and tornadoes.

“We are experiencing a historic weather event tonight with record rains across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday evening.

State emergencies have been declared in New York and New Jersey as the National Weather Service issued its first-ever emergency flash flood warning for New York City, urging residents to relocate to land higher.

“You don’t know how deep the water is and it’s too dangerous,” the New York branch of the National Weather Service (NWS) said in a tweet.

The NWS recorded 3.15 inches (80 millimeters) of rain in Central Park in just one hour, breaking a record set last month during Storm Henri.

The US Open was also halted as wind and rain howled under the corners of the roof of Louis Armstrong Stadium.

– Persistent tornado threat –

New Yorkers woke up to blue skies on Thursday as the city came to life, but signs of the previous night’s carnage were not far away: Residents moved fallen tree branches from roads as services metro stations were slowly picking up.

About 98,000 homes in Pennsylvania, 60,000 in New Jersey and 40,000 in New York City were without power, according to poweroutage.us.

Rarely do such storms hit America’s northeast coast and occur as the surface layer of the oceans warms due to climate change.

Warming causes cyclones to become more powerful and carry more water, posing a growing threat to coastal communities around the world, scientists say.

“Global warming is upon us and it’s going to get worse and worse unless we do something,” Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said.

In Annapolis, 50 kilometers from Washington, a tornado ripped trees and knocked down utility poles.

The NWS warned that the threat of tornadoes would persist, with tornado watches in effect for parts of southern Connecticut, northern New Jersey and southern New York as Ida headed north through the New England Thursday.

(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)