New York City engulfed by floods on the wettest day on record
Screengrab from CBS Evening News/YouTube
New York City flooding has made quite a buzz over the weekend as the city that never sleeps was submerged in water following heavy rainfall.
The torrential downpour heavily flooded the streets, subways, homes, and even forced animals to escape the zoo.
Over the weekend, the floods still dominated the headlines with rail services grinding to a halt, basements looking like indoor pools, and highways transforming into aquatic worlds. LaGuardia Airport even pulled down its shutters, resulting in 20,525 flight delays and 681 cancellations, according to FlightAware.
A map showing the area of New York under a flash flood warning, denoted in dark red, until 8:15 a.m. ET on September 29, 2023. It includes the NYC boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn as well as part of Long Island -National Weather Service/Photo from newsweek.com
A map showing the area of New York under a flash flood warning, denoted in dark red, until 8:15 a.m. ET on September 29, 2023. It includes the NYC boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn as well as part of Long Island.NWS
Brooklyn experienced most of the deluge with over 7.25 inches of rain or 18.41 centimeters on Sept. 30, Saturday. As a result, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported city-spread delays and outages, causing a citywide commute catastrophes.
All this rain was caused by the tail end of tropical storm Ophelia along with a west-bound mid-latitude system. Couple this with the possible effects of global warming that creates frequent and intense rainfall as well as the revelation that the city is sinking, and you’ve got a recipe for calamities.
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NYC under state of emergency
As the rain created flash floods that brought the city to its knees, Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Sept. 30 while Mayor Eric Adams urged New Yorkers to stay indoors as emergency warnings courtesy of the National Weather Service alerted mobile phones over the weekend
“A FLASH FLOOD WARNING is in effect for this area until 12:30pm EDT,” it read. “This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”
Flash Flood Warning continues for Brooklyn NY and Queens NY until 2:30 PM EDT pic.twitter.com/51IfKWm4cU
— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) September 29, 2023
In addition, the New York City flooding also took a major toll on the subways with Manhattan’s Metro-North rail transit suspension. The Long Island Rail Road was also left tangled up, leaving a fleet of buses stranded.
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Social media blew up
The commotion wasn’t just on the flooded streets as social media became a platform for the harsh reality unfolding in New York City. Even tech mogul Elon Musk chimed in, posting “Does anyone know what caused this?”
More footage from the New York City flooding.
Does anyone know what caused this? pic.twitter.com/EvG9qtKFTk
— Elon Musk (Parody) (@ElonMuskAOC) October 1, 2023
New York City is flooding like crazy.
Hope everyone is ok. pic.twitter.com/7dksqinvDo
— Elon Musk (Parody) (@ElonMuskAOC) September 29, 2023
Meanwhile, X News Monitor shared a video of shoppers inside a supermarket struggling underwater to buy their needs.
⚡🇺🇲 #USA – People grocery shopping in knee high water during the apocalyptic flooding in New York City today. #NewYorkFlood #NYC #flood #WeatherAlert pic.twitter.com/TokYZtxmdx
— X News Monitor (@xNewsMonitor) September 30, 2023
Even animals weren’t spared when a video of sea lions escaping the Central Park Zoo circulated.
🚨#BREAKING: Sea lions have escaped the Central Park zoo due severe flooding ⁰
📌#Manhattan | #NewYorkDue to the extreme flooding that is occurring across New York City, the water level in the Sea Lion area rose significantly. As a result, the Sea Lions were able to swim over… pic.twitter.com/XCZ5FFZK5B
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) September 29, 2023
