The Craziest Flooding New York Has Ever Seen

• And it's only getting to be more of a problem.

The craziest flooding in New York has happened and it’s getting worse. Here are a bunch of facts about New York’s flooding. 

• New York is home to over 8 million people and is the largest metropolis in the US.
• The city is under attack from hurricanes, just like the rest of the East Coast.
• Death tolls from flooding are on the rise after record rain fall and storm surges cause wide spread flooding.
• From New York to San Francisco and Miami to Vancouver, all around the world cities are at a constant risk of destruction by the earth .
• September 1st 2021 was the worst New York has seen.
• Significant rainfall was predicted from Hurricane Ida after it had already hit New Orleans and Mississippi.
• The storm was tracked from Long Island, before it got to the United States.
• The hurricane had already killed 20 people in Venezuela and caused $250 million dollars in damage to Cuba alone.
• On Sunday August 29th, Ida hit Louisiana as a category 4 hurricane. There were 150mph winds and a 14 foot storm surge. The storm left 1 million people without power and 28 people were killed.
• Meteorologists had trouble with Ida’s trajectory while looking for organized thunderstorm activity.
• Experts thought it would hit mid Atlantic, more like Washington DC but it gained strength as it went towards the north east.
• Radars surveyed 250 miles and there were oranges and red for New Jersey and New York, meaning really intense rainfall rates.
• The threat became very real without much warning to tell the public.
• This kind of rain can turn a city into a death trap and it can only rain so much before flooding begins.
• 3-5 inches of rain in 2 hours can have a huge impact.
• After 8 ½ inches of rain fell, it accumulated on streets and caused flooding. Emergency responders began to set up. 
• The rain kept falling and all of New York was considered in extreme danger.
• As rain can be hard to predict, an emergency management system reported at 8:41PM a catastrophic flash flood warning. By 9:28PM Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens and Manhattan all got the same warning.
• This was the first time in the cities history that the national weather center issued an emergency alert for flash flooding in New York City. Talk about the craziest of all the New York flooding facts.
• Emergency responders rushed to help people. The fire department alone conducted 500 rescues.
• By 11:45PM  the mayor issued an state of emergency across the city.
• For some, this warning was too late. The rain was much worse than predicted with a forecast of 3-5 inches to a total of 8. The city got 10 inches of rain dumped on them in three hours.
• The frequency and intensity of coastal storms and rainfall is increasing.
• Flooding happened throughout the city causing basement flooding. In New York, lots of people live in basements throughout the city.
• Elmhurst Queens had really extensive flooding likely to occur. This type of flooding can turn basements into death traps, with a slow flow or an instant rush of water.
• Residents were made aware of rain and told to be cautious, which was not an unusual thing for these residents to hear.
• In less than a minute, water was up to one resident’s neck.
• Water was coming in from the doors windows and through washing machine connections.
• A woman tried to climb out of the window but the water was almost up to the ceiling. Her blind son heard her scream and came to help her. She was completely submerged but he was able to pull her out and save her.
• New York City was full of harrowing stories but not everyone was so lucky.
• 13 New Yorkers died in the craziest flooding New York has seen, many drowning in their basements.
• There was a total of $9 million dollars of damage post storm.
• Ida was unprecedented storm in New York City.  The average rainfall for an entire month fell in one hour.
• The flood was over a foot in depth in Elmhurst Queens and on Queens Boulevard on Broadway, about 3 ½ inches of rainfall in an hour.
• Waves of rolling water were seen as Broadway Boulevard became a literal river. The water was high and fast and basements had water flow in high velocity.
• There were cars floating down the street.
• Subways were chest high with water.
• Mega storms are happening more and more, forcing New York to prepare for more flooding each year.
• Ian, Sandy and Katrina had higher death tolls but Ida proved that New York cannot cope with the scale of this problem.
• 5.6 million New Yorkers could be exposed to flooding from these extreme rainfall events and cause major risk to safety.

What can be done to prevent these floods?

• There is new tech for real time data to help emergency services get to people faster with use of flood sensors.
• Ultrasonic beams are used to measure distance between sensors and the sidewalk to calculate the depth of the flood.
• Ultrasonic pulses are sent to the servers every minute and within 1-2 minutes the public will know and so will emergency services.
• These sensor systems can help people to react more quickly. There are currently 28 installed but 500 more to be installed in the coming years.

Do you live near New York? This is an absolutely terrifying and the craziest flooding New York has seen yet.

For more about New York, follow the link to read The Weirdest Laws You Didn’t Know New York Had.