Emergency in New York City as floods kill 12
REMNANTS OF HURRICANE IDA WALLOP EAST COAST, DROWNING SEVERAL PEOPLE IN HOMES AND CARS
Tornadoes, heavy rain inundate streets and paralyse transport
ARecovery efforts were under way early yesterday to bring back transportation systems serving millions of residents in the densely populated metropolitan area.
stunned US East Coast faced a rising death toll, surging rivers, tornado damage and continuing calls for rescue yesterday after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain, drowning more than two dozen people in their homes and cars.
The storm killed at least 26 people from Maryland to New York on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. At least 12 people died in New York City, police said, one of them in a car and 11 in flooded basement apartments. Officials said at least eight died in New Jersey and three in Pennsylvania’s suburban Montgomery County — one was killed by a falling tree, one drowned in a car and another in a home.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio described the flooding and weather on Wednesday night as a “historic weather event,” and the National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency in New York City for the first time.
Still, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and de Blasio said the storm’s strength took them by surprise.
“We did not know that between 8.50pm and 9.50pm last night, that the heavens would literally open up and bring Niagara Falls level of water to the streets of New York,” said Hochul. De Blasio said he’d gotten a forecast Wednesday of 3 to 6 inches of rain over the course of the day. The city’s Central Park ended up getting 3.15 inches just in one hour, surpassing the previous recorded high of 1.94 inches in one hour during Tropical Storm Henri on August 21.
The storm ultimately dumped over 9 inches of rain in parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and nearly as much on New York City’s Staten Island.
In Washington, President Joe Biden assured Northeast residents that federal first responders were on the ground to help clean up after the lates t disaster in two weeks of wild weather across the U.S. Wildfires are threatening Lake Tahoe, and Ida struck Louisiana as the fifth-strongest storm to ever hit the U.S. mainland, leaving 1 million people without power, maybe for weeks.
As its remnants hit New York, some highways flooded, garbage bobbed in water rushing down the streets and water cascaded into the city’s subway tunnels, trapping at least 17 trains and forcing the cancelation of service throughout the night and early morning. Videos online showed riders standing on seats in cars filled with water. All riders were evacuated safely, officials said.
At one Queens development, water filled the sunken patio of a basement apartment, then broke through a glass door and rushed in, trapping a 48-yearold woman in 6 feet of water. Neighbours unsuccessfully tried for an hour to save her.
“She was screaming, `Help me, help me, help me!’ We all came to her aid, trying to get her out. But it was so strong - the thrust of the water was so strong,” said the building’s assistant superintendent, Jayson Jordan.
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, near Newark Airport, four people died and 600 were left homeless from rain and river flooding in an apartment complex, Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said. Neighbours described hearing screaming from the complex at about 11pm as water flowed down the street, pushing dumpsters and cars around. “Sandy had nothing on this,” resident Jennifer Vilchez said, referring to 2012’s superstorm.
Greg Turner, who lives in another part of the city, said his 87-year-old mother started calling 911 from the complex at 8pm when the water started rising in her apartment. He said he and his brother tried to rush to her rescue, but the water was too high.
By close to midnight, the water was up to her neck, he said. Rescuers finally were able to cut through the floor of the apartment above and pull her to safety. “She lost everything,” Turner said as he headed to a bank to get money to buy his mother some clothes and shoes.