01/10/2023 1:30 pm (current 01/10/2023 1:30 pm)
Concern about climate events of this type is increasing ©APA/GETTY IMAGES AMERICA DO NORTE
In the North American metropolis of New York, normality quickly returned to normal after Friday’s exceptionally heavy rains, with knee-deep water in the streets, subway stations and airports. On Saturday morning (local time), people were able to use most subway lines again, as the North American newspaper “New York Times” wrote. Flight operations also went according to plan again.
A flood warning for the urban area was no longer in effect. As the low pressure area advanced, the rain also weakened.
Governor Kathy Hochul, who declared a state of emergency on Friday, appeared before the press on Saturday with good news: the flooding did not result in any deaths. 28 people were rescued from “rough waters” in the Hudson Valley, north of New York and on Long Island. She thanked all residents for heeding warnings from authorities.
At the same time, Hochul emphasized that climate change is transforming these meteorological phenomena into a “new normality”. New York must improve its infrastructure to be prepared for future and more frequent weather emergencies of this type.
On Friday the picture was completely different. Record amounts of rain quickly paralyzed large parts of the US East Coast metropolis. In the morning and mid-morning, some parts of New York received more rain than usual in a month in just a few hours. Highways and streets were transformed into lakescapes and an airport terminal was also flooded and closed. The city administration asked people on Friday to stay home if possible – many subways stopped running or experienced long delays.
New Yorkers’ cellphones vibrated several times Friday because of automated emergency alerts from the National Weather Service. Under the thick cloud cover, it remained gloomy even in the middle of the day. A persistent area of low pressure that emerged from Tropical Storm “Ophelia” was responsible for the masses of water – but without wind, which otherwise would have likely worsened the situation. However, many New Yorkers remembered the heavy rains that flooded the city two years ago in the wake of Hurricane Ida. At least eleven people died at that time.
According to information from the New York Times, September is the wettest in more than 140 years in the metropolis of eight million inhabitants – since records began, only 1882 has received more precipitation.