New York mops up after floods
TOLL: AT LEAST 9 KILLED, SEVERAL IN THEIR BASEMENTS Record-breaking rainfall caused by remnants of Ida.
New Yorkers mopped up flooded homes and businesses and began removing fallen debris from crushed cars on Thursday as they counted the cost of record rain that caught much of the Big Apple by surprise.
Under piercing blue skies that belied the carnage of just a few hours earlier, shocked residents surveyed the damage of a chaotic night that left at least nine people dead in the city and killed several more in outlying areas.
Flash flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed at least 44 people in four northeastern US states overnight into Thursday, including several who perished in basements during the “historic” weather event officials blamed on climate change.
“I honestly feel heartbroken,” said Marcio Rodrigues, at his destroyed car repair shop in the New York suburb of Mamaroneck, where several clients’ cars were ruined.
“This was my dream. And I feel like I lost it all right now,” he told AFP, crying.
A short distance away, electrical contractor Jim Lanza’s ground-floor office was full of mud after water rose more than two metres.
“It’s pretty devastating,” he said, adding that the water took about seven hours to recede.
Nearby, Jeannsie Silva Barrios recalled a sleepless night as the owner of her house pumped water from her basement. “I was really scared. My husband had to wake up at like four o’clock in the morning just to see the water, how it was going,” she said.
A few miles south, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Jonas Sigle eyed the wreckage of his car outside his home. “A 10-ton tree just fell on my car. My car’s crushed. It’s totalled,” he told AFP.
“Wow, this was just unbelievable,” said his neighbour, Michael Price.
Record rainfall of 80mm fell in Central Park in just an hour, breaking a record set last month during tropical storm Henri.
The flooding reignited memories of hurricane Sandy, a more powerful storm that knocked out power for much of Manhattan and flooded subways in 2012.
In Brooklyn, Rebecca Stronger was mopping up water from the basement and first floors of her veterinary clinic. “We all show up, we all clean and we all get our job done,” she told AFP.
She said she expects more storms in the future as the surface layer of oceans warms due to climate change. “Of course. Everybody knows about climate change. I expect it to happen a lot,” she added. –