NYC sees rain end, return to business
Storm leaves area following deluge
NEW YORK — New York City began drying out Saturday after being soaked by one of its wettest days in decades, as city dwellers dried out basements and traffic resumed on highways, railways and airports that were temporarily shut down by Friday’s severe rainfall.
While the fierce storm has moved on, some of its damage lingered into the weekend.
A power outage in a Brooklyn neighborhood caused by the storm prompted city officials on Saturday to evacuate the staff and about 120 patients from a city hospital after the region’s power company, Con Edison, said the facility’s emergency power had to be shut down so the utility can make repairs.
City officials said the repairs could take several days before the hospital in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood can resume full operations.
Parts of Brooklyn saw more than 7.25 inches of rain, with at least one spot recording 2.5 inches in a single hour, turning some streets into knee-deep canals and stranding drivers on highways.
Record rainfall — more than 8.65 inches — fell at John F. Kennedy International Airport, surpassing the record for any September day during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.
More rain was expected over the weekend but the worst was over, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday morning during a briefing at a transportation control center in Manhattan.
What could have been a life-threatening event was averted, she said, because many people heeded early calls to stay put or head for higher ground before it was too late.
As a result, Hochul said, “No lives were lost.”
The governor said 28 people had to be rescued from the “raging water” by first responders in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island.
City officials received reports of six flooded basement apartments Friday, but all occupants got out safely.
Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams declared states of emergency and urged people to stay put if possible.
The deluge also came less than three months after a storm caused deadly floods in New York’s Hudson Valley and swamped Vermont’s capital, Montpelier.
“This is the scale in terms of the water that dropped from the heavens during this torrential rain event that actually was the same as Hurricane Ida. The blessing is that we didn’t have the wind associated with it that accompanied Hurricane Ida. But I remember that event like it was yesterday,” Hochul said Saturday.
For the most part Saturday, New Yorkers returned to their usual weekend routines, strolling through still-damp pathways in Central Park and on city sidewalks.
Traffic was again flowing through highways that had been at a standstill just a day before, with water above car tires and forcing some drivers to abandon their vehicles.
Flight delays at LaGuardia Airport could no longer be blamed on downpours and flooding, which forced the closure of one of the airport’s three terminals for several hours before resuming later that night.
While skies remained overcast, one of the culprits for the severe weather — the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia — had moved on.
Some service interruptions continued Saturday throughout the city’s subway system, which had been in complete chaos the day before because of flooded tracks.