Two people died in flooded New York City basements Thursday during a rainstorm that shut down roadways and caused airport delays, authorities said. A scuba team recovered the body of a 39-year-old man after firefighters received a call of a person trapped in the flooded basement of a three-story townhouse in Brooklyn at about 4:30pm, police said. A video posted online showed firefighters carrying the victim away through calf-deep water on the street, the AP reports. In Manhattan, a 43-year-old man was found dead inside the flooded basement boiler room of an apartment building, police said. The cause of death was under investigation.
A neighbor tells the New York Times that the man who died in Brooklyn had rescued one of his dogs but became trapped when he went back for the other. She says the second dog also died. "This day has been horrific," she says. Some spots around the city saw record rainfall. Preliminary reports showed 1.8 inches of rain fell in Central Park on Thursday, which would surpass the record of 1.64 inches set for the park in 1917, the National Weather Service said.
LaGuardia Airport recorded 1.97 inches of rain, which would break the 1955 record of 1.18 inches for that airport. New York saw hours of rainfall of varying intensity Thursday leading into the evening commute. Photos and videos on social media showed water rising to the bumpers of cars and pouring into subway stations. "When you look at the amount of water that was coming down, our sewer systems are just not built to handle that. It was a steady rain, throughout," said Mayor Eric Adams.
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Street flooding was highly localized, turning some intersections with clogged drains into pools deep enough to float cars, while leaving the next blocks with only modest puddles. Falling tree limbs damaged vehicles in some neighborhoods. The Times reports that the record rainfall happened during a drought, with the rain sweeping accumulated piles of trash and fallen leaves into sewer drains, which quickly became clogged.
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