Corners of Queens abounded in sudden flash flooding again last Saturday, as inches of rainfall hit the area and forced a busy weekend to a damp, rainy pause.<\/p>\n
By 6 p.m. Saturday, National Weather Service measuring posts in Kew Gardens Hills and Bellerose reported north of 2 inches of rain. The city\u2019s sewer system is designed to handle just 1.5 to 1.75 inches of rain per hour.<\/p>\n
While there were no reported fatalities over the weekend, the massive rains proved to be disruptive throughout the borough.<\/p>\n
In Woodside, FDNY trucks were dispatched through flooded streets to respond to drivers trapped on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and homeowners stuck inside their basements; at 47-04 69 St. responding firefighers reported \u201cwaist-high water rushing into the basement, trapping the occupants behind a doorway that couldn\u2019t be opened due to the force of the water and debris,\u201d per an FDNY social media post.<\/p>\n
By early afternoon, the NYPD reported that all lanes were blocked in both directions of the BQE at Queens Boulevard. In one video, the entrance to the Macy\u2019s in Rego Park was inoperable, briefly inundated with water.<\/p>\n
Other expressways, in Whitestone and Clearview, experienced heavy flooding too, with fire trucks navigating them like boats.<\/p>\n
Avenues in Flushing turned briefly into rivers, pushing cars onto sidewalks and filling basements. Kissena Boulevard in particular was hit hard by the flooding, as it often is.<\/p>\n
In a video, one front yard appeared filled entirely with water, possessions floating on what had previously been streets. In another, residents can be seen wading carefully through the suddenly knee-deep water.<\/p>\n
Amid the flooding, the city dispatched Emergency Management Commissioner Christina Farrell to nearby Peck Avenue, in order to assess storm damage, speak with residents and distribute the agency\u2019s flood recovery kits.<\/p>\n
In Jackson Heights, one of the entrances to the 74th Street station was rendered briefly inaccessible; stairs deluged with downfall, the underground corridor inches deep with water, per one video.<\/p>\n
For many these were familiar sights.<\/p>\n
Much of Queens often floods. This past May, heavy rainfall and thunderstorms caused severe flooding and road closures across Queens, prompting complaints from various electeds. Earlier this month, a torrential downpour after the Fourth of July holiday briefly shut down power for some 400 residents in College Point.<\/p>\n
The latest storm didn\u2019t knock out power, but brought out another flood of complaints.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany have flooded before and are frustrated that the same problems continue year after year,\u201d read a Monday statement from Councilman Phil Wong (D-Maspeth).<\/p>\n
Wong\u2019s office said the rep spent the weekend \u201ctouring neighborhoods across Council District 30 to assess the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City needs to stop reacting after every storm and start investing in the infrastructure improvements our neighborhoods have been asking for,\u201d said Wong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis seems to happen every heavy rain,\u201d wrote Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Fresh Meadows) in a post on social media. Rozic is behind a bill in the Assembly that would permit water and sewer agencies to invest in capital projects to improve resiliency.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil the City fixes its outdated infrastructure, clogged drains, and insufficient sewers, the least they can do is warn drivers and keep roadways clear,\u201d wrote Rozic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeavy rain continues to come down over our district,\u201d wrote Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) in her own post on social media. On Monday, Meng said she met with DEP Commissioner Lisa Garcia \u201cto discuss flooding in Queens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve secured millions to address flooding, and we\u2019re working together on solutions to better prepare residents when severe weather hits,\u201d Meng wrote.<\/p>\n
Throughout Queens, the rainfall also drew an ordinarily bustling summer weekend to a halt. Chart-straddling folk rocker Noah Kahan, due to sing at Citi Field, was forced to cancel the first of his two stadium dates, something he tearfully told the crowd a day later that he\u2019s only ever done some six times before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know you guys were all here. I don\u2019t expect any sympathy at all,\u201d Kahan said at his show.<\/p>\n
At Forest Hills, the Canadian EDM duo Zeds Dead similarly canceled their headlining show, now postponed until August.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were hopeful all yesterday and today, and thought if the winds and lightning held off we could at least have a time in the rain and it would maybe even be more magical but alas there is no way to do it now,\u201d read a post from the Canadian pair, hours before doors had been set to open.<\/p>\n
In Richmond Hill, City Councilman Ty Hankerson (D-Jamaica) was forced to cancel his first-ever \u201cFreedom Block Party,\u201d set to feature performances by the Guyanese singer Terry Gajraj, as well as a scheduled appearance from Mayor Mandani, set to announce funding in the latest city budget for street sweeping on Liberty Avenue.<\/p>\n
A rep for Hankerson\u2019s office told the Chronicle that the festival is set to be rebooked for Aug 1.<\/p>\n
Bill Scarborough, former assemblyman for Jamaica and current head of the Addisleigh Park Civic Organization, told the Chronicle that things weren\u2019t so bad in Southeast Queens.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did not experience as much this time, but the big storm [in May] was an absolute nightmare,\u201d said Scarborough, vividly recounting the rainfall rendering turning nearby streets into intraversable floodzones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had flooding on 110th Avenue between 177th and 178th, I mean it was just like a river,\u201d he could still remember. \u201cWe kind of dodged the bullet this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corners of Queens abounded in sudden flash flooding again last Saturday, as inches of rainfall hit the area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1169,3242,14236,609,877,9,24,17691,63,8430,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-303811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-emergency-response","tag-environment","tag-flooding","tag-government","tag-grace-meng","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nily-rozic","tag-nyc","tag-phil-wong","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}