{"id":335541,"date":"2026-09-02T02:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/335541\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T02:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:50:16","slug":"5-years-after-ida-nyc-is-still-struggling-to-deal-with-extreme-rain-and-deadly-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/335541\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Years After Ida, NYC Is Still Struggling To Deal With Extreme Rain and Deadly Flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The remnants of Hurricane Ida<\/a> barreled through New York City five years ago, dumping unprecedented amounts of rain on the city and resulting in 13 New Yorkers\u2019 deaths. The storm, which served as a wake-up call about the safety risks of extreme rain, still looms large today, having marked a shift in how city officials and residents recognized inland flooding as an urgent problem<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIda is precisely the day we stopped primarily worrying about coastal flooding and started worrying about stormwater,\u201d said Rohit Aggarwala, the city\u2019s former chief climate officer and environmental protection commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ida was the city\u2019s deadliest since 2012\u2019s Superstorm Sandy. Most of the New Yorkers who died drowned in their basement apartments in Queens, and more than 100 families were displaced<\/a> from their homes.<\/p>\n

In the time since, city government has improved the way it communicates with residents about potential flooding, expanded efforts to handle vast quantities of water around the boroughs and taken steps<\/a> toward making basement apartments safer. Local communities have also played a role in preparing for and responding to deluges, which have hit New York<\/a> regularly since Ida, including several this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the concrete jungle is far from transforming into a sponge. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of progress, but there\u2019s always more to do,\u201d said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Major Deegan Expressway from above 225th Street the morning after Hurricane Ida remnants swept the city, Sept. 2, 2021. Credit: Claudia Irizarry Aponte\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

\u2018Should We Even Go Out?\u2019<\/p>\n

New Yorkers have in recent years become familiar with the effects of extreme rain. Manhole covers pop; water gurgles up through sewer grates or jumps a curb and spills into windows and doors; sewer backups<\/a> lead to water and human waste coming out of toilets and bathtub faucets; travelers traverse rushing water on streets and dodge waterfalls in subway stations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sam Wu, a homeowner in Flushing\u2019s Kissena Park, said he lost two cars to flooding after heavy rains during Ida and again this summer, and had to gut and replace everything on the first floor of his home after the 2021 storm. He\u2019s lived in the house for 20 years, but said the flooding on the block has gotten more frequent since Ida.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we just hear about a heavy rainstorm coming, we\u2019re all just kind of mentally prepared to do whatever we can,\u201d Wu said. \u201cYou look at the weather, and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a heavy rain this afternoon. Should we even go out? Should we go out to Long Island with the kids or not? Or should we go to Brooklyn?\u2019 No, no, we\u2019re not because we\u2019re going to be somewhere close where we can run back in case something happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Extreme bursts of rain challenge the city\u2019s ability to handle massive amounts of water, since most of its sewer system has a capacity<\/a> of less than two inches of rain per hour. Ida dumped more than three inches of rain an hour at the storm\u2019s peak, with more than seven inches total in parts of the city, setting a record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a tremendous difference between getting three inches of rain over a 24-hour period versus getting three inches of rain over a one- or two-hour period,\u201d said Daniel Bader, a meteorologist and senior staff associate at the Columbia Climate School. \u201cWhen you\u2019re getting this magnitude of water over a short duration of time, there are going to be significant impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deluges are expected to become more common<\/a> and intense due to climate change. Warmer air holds more moisture, which means rains can get heavier.<\/p>\n

\"Gov.Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks with Kissena Park, Queens residents while touring flood damaged homes from Hurricane Ida, Sept. 7, 2021. Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin\/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul<\/p>\n

\u2018You Need To Be Prepared Everywhere\u2019<\/p>\n

Ida accelerated stormwater management practices and preparedness, which had largely taken a backseat<\/a> to coastal flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t protect against [stormwater flooding] in the way you can with a coastal storm,\u201d said Rob Freudenberg, vice president of the nonprofit Regional Plan Association\u2019s energy and environmental programs. \u201cIt requires a lot of little interventions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The unpredictability of where a rainstorm will hit means \u201cyou need to be prepared everywhere, which is an almost impossible ask,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

During rainstorms, the extent of flooding and ensuing damage can vary by block, based on a host of factors. Those include topography, whether catch basins are full of debris, and the type of surrounding environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ryan White, who runs Brooklyn knife-sharpening business Greenpoint Knives, became somewhat of a local hero when he went viral in July as he stepped into floodwaters<\/a> near McCarren Park and used a broom to clear a catch basin. The water, which had pooled into a lake and started entering his truck, swirled down the drain and receded.<\/p>\n

White said he knew to do that because for several months before the storm, he\u2019d seen city workers clearing out the drains using vacuum-like trucks and knew there was new mulch around nearby trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have [the city] doing all the right things, but it was a combination of this rain and this flash flood and all that mulch that they had recently planted had moved down to the drain and were just covering the drains,\u201d White said. \u201cI was like, \u2018OK, well I\u2019m just gonna go sweep off this drain.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendees at a May event in Chinatown for the resiliency initiative Rainproof NYC watched through windows as the clouds opened up, with a half-inch of rain falling in five minutes. Some people chuckled and murmured it always seemed to rain during Rainproof events.<\/p>\n

Amy Chester, director of the nonprofit Rebuild by Design, which convenes Rainproof, said it wasn\u2019t until later, when she got home and scrolled through social media, that it dawned on her how bad the storm was in certain neighborhoods. A part of low-lying Hollis, Queens, recorded more than 46 inches of floodwater, according to flood sensor data.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing about rainfall is that even within New York City, it gets concentrated in completely different areas, and then that area sees impact, and then that tests the system of that specific area,\u201d Chester said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Streets were flooded in South Williamsburg as torrential downpours hit the city, Sept. 29, 2023. Credit: Gwynne Hogan\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

Making NYC a Rain Sponge\u00a0<\/p>\n

Work has been ongoing since Ida to turn the city into a place that can handle huge amounts of water \u2014 though there\u2019s a long way to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The local Department of Environmental Protection in 2024 estimated<\/a> it would cost $30 billion over three decades to significantly improve resiliency in areas of the city most vulnerable to flooding from heavy rains.<\/p>\n

The department has upgraded 50 miles of sewers across the city since Ida and plans to invest $9 billion over a decade for further upgrades, including along Bushwick\u2019s Knickerbocker Avenue. The agency will also change out more than 6,700 catch basins to improve drainage and replace its entire catch basin-cleaning trucks in the next three years.<\/p>\n

Beyond those projects, the city is advancing efforts to tackle flooding using nature-based solutions and other policies, such as possible buyouts in flood-prone neighborhoods, as The City Reporter recently documented<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of the projects<\/a> are already completed, including a scaling up of Staten Island\u2019s bluebelt system (which conveys water using natural channels), a completed basketball court \u201ccloudburst\u201d project<\/a> at the New York City Housing Authority\u2019s South Jamaica Houses that can drain large amounts of water, the installation of almost seven miles of pavement that absorbs water in Borough Park and more than 3,000 curbside rain gardens and underground tanks on public land.<\/p>\n

There are more cloudburst projects<\/a>, bluebelts and miles of porous pavement installations in the works across the boroughs. Tyler Taba, director of policy and government affairs at the nonprofit Waterfront Alliance, said those projects are a good start but have taken shape slowly, with many still in the planning phases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see more of these projects really expanded out,\u201d Taba said. \u201cLooking back five years, have we reimagined our infrastructure in the way that we wanted to [reduce flooding]? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The MTA responds to conditions caused by heavy rains and flooding on Friday, Sep 29, 2023. Credit: Marc A. Hermann\/MTA<\/p>\n

Emergency Notifications and \u2018Alert Fatigue\u2019<\/p>\n

Some of the city\u2019s most intense storms since Ida happened on both Sept. 29, 2023 and July 14, 2025, when more than two inches of rain fell per hour. On Oct. 30, 2025, an inch of rain fell in 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

The city Emergency Management agency pays certain groups to amplify preparedness messaging and has also refined its alert system and communications. Under former Mayor Eric Adams, drones flew over homes to warn residents heavy rain was imminent. The city has abandoned that specific approach but continues honing messages and strategies, officials said.<\/p>\n

Two men died<\/a> in flooded basements nearly a year ago, marking the first time since Ida that deaths occurred from flooding during extreme rain. In response, Emergency Management added language in its messaging that directs New Yorkers to get out and stay out of flooded basements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to clarify that [directive],\u201d said Tyler Roosa, the agency\u2019s director of public warning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rainfall is hard to predict, and sometimes official NotifyNYC alerts \u2014 to which about 1.6 million people are subscribed \u2014 warning of heavy rain end up falling flat.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlert fatigue, it\u2019s something we\u2019re battling constantly,\u201d Roosa said. \u201cWe still have to prepare people for the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the agency still hasn\u2019t used wireless emergency alerts to all cellphones<\/a> \u2014 such as for dire blizzard conditions or hurricanes \u2014 to warn about possible deadly flooding, and won\u2019t do so except in the most dire circumstances, based on rain observations and street flooding reports.<\/p>\n

\"TorrentialTorrential rain fell in Lower Manhattan, Aug. 27, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/The City Reporter<\/p>\n

Grassroots Climate Preparation<\/p>\n

People throughout the city are increasingly taking action when they know rain is on the horizon, often spurred by the city\u2019s alerts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it starts to rain super, super, super hard, I know we have 10 minutes to act before the deluge comes,\u201d said Shari Call, who owns Simple Loaf Bakehouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn. \u201cAll the water from Park Slope above us and maybe from the park comes pouring down Second Street, and then it makes a left-hand turn onto Fifth Avenue and heads directly to the front of the bakery.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s lost thousands of dollars\u2019 worth of ingredients and sales because of flooding, and recently invested $4,500 in barriers to prevent water from entering the store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Repeated flooding also adds another dimension to the housing<\/a> and affordability crises for renters<\/a> and property owners alike.<\/p>\n

Janice Jiggetts, a retired homeowner in St. Albans, Queens, knows that reality well. Her home flooded with black water for the first time during Ida, and has done so multiple times since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to pay for cleanup, my boiler repair. I couldn\u2019t do any major repairs in the house because I couldn\u2019t afford it,\u201d she said, estimating she spent at least $4,000 after she was flooded in September. \u201cI have to pull back on everything, and then you have to use credit cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jiggetts said she hasn\u2019t done anything to service her boiler or properly deal with mold after being flooded in May because she can\u2019t yet afford to.<\/p>\n

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