NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) — In the first severe flash-flooding episode of the year for New York City, streets were filled with backed-up rainwater up to pedestrians’ knees.
Dozens of videos, from Manhattan to Queens and Brooklyn, showed the damage to New York City’s streets and subways. Traffic was backed up, trains were significantly delayed or suspended and one woman was even seen being swept away after stepping off an MTA bus.
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Why was the NYC flooding so intense?
According to the National Weather Service, parts of Queens saw over 2.2 inches of rain during the storm, and just under 2 inches in Brooklyn. Residents were trying their best to clear catch basins, but it was already too late.
Neslon Vaz, a meteorologist for the NWS, said areas in the two boroughs experienced most of that rainfall in 20 to 40 minutes, which is why the water buildup was so intense.
“These sub-hourly intense rainfall events are challenging to calibrate with ground truth and real-world impacts quickly enough to confidently upgrade to a FFW (flash flood warning) before the event comes to an end,” Vaz said.
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Why can’t the city drains handle it?
In an interview with PIX11 News following intense flooding last summer, former Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol said the city’s half-century-old infrastructure was designed to handle 1.75 inches of rain in an hour.
Similarly, former NYC Environmental Protection Commissioner Rhit Aggarwala said, “The reality is I don’t know that it’s at all possible to design the sewers to handle” that much water in such a short span.
“Addressing stormwater resilience to fix this underground infrastructure is going to be the work of tens of years, decades,” Aggarwala said.
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Why the problem won’t go away (and could get worse)
Both the Office of Climate and Environmental Justice and the Department of Planning have estimated that monthly tidal flooding could become widespread in New York City due to rising sea levels by the 2050s.
NYC Planning’s 2016 report predicts that the number of people living in floodplain risk areas could more than double by the 2050s, along with the likelihood of flooding occurring.
The New York City Panel on Climate Change expects sea levels to increase between 8 and 30 inches by then, and as much as 15 to 75 inches by the year 2100.
The OCEJ said chronic tidal flooding will likely impact the area around Jamaica Bay more than anywhere else. That’s roughly 55% of 86,000 units in 1-to-2 family buildings.
Spencer Gustafson is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered New York state and city news since 2023. See more of his work here.
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