By Gus Saltonstall
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a State of Emergency for New York City Friday morning amid torrential rain and flash flood warnings.
A total of 3 to 6 inches of rain fell across New York and New Jersey by Friday evening, with more than eight inches of rainfall in parts of Queens. The rain is expected to continue through Friday night in the five boroughs, but not at the same rate — before clearing up by Saturday afternoon.
The MTA tweeted out at 10:30 a.m. that there is “only extremely limited subway service available because of heavy flooding. Service is suspended at many stations. Please stay home if you don’t need to travel.” Train service across the city has remained suspended or heavily delayed through Friday evening.
Trains remained suspended or delayed into Friday night.
The Department of Transportation also announced that Alternate Side Parking Regulations were suspended on Friday due to the heavy rainfall. Additionally, the suspension will continue through the end of Saturday for the Jewish holiday of the Sukkot.
Here’s what the flooding looked like Friday morning in Brooklyn.
NYC experienced major flooding this morning pic.twitter.com/kMvz2c4OHM
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) September 29, 2023
More than five inches of rain fell in Central Park by Friday evening, including a period of more than two inches in one hour. The total makes it the second-wettest hour in Central Park in the last 80 years, according to CNN.
Elsewhere in Central Park on Friday, a sea lion at the Central Park Zoo was able to swim out of her pool due to the flooding and “explored the area before returning to familiar surroundings,” confirmed a spokesperson from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The park’s Bethesda Fountain Plaza also flooded with water.
To the west, Riverside Park wasn’t able to escape the flooding either. Photos and videos show water rushing into Dinosaur Playground near West 97th Street, and long stretches of walkway within the park completely underwater.
By Friday evening there had been nearly eight inches of rain at John F. Kennedy International Airport, making it the wettest day at the airport since precipitation records first began getting tracked in 1948. The city is on track for the most rain ever in a single day, according to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
A flash flood warning for Manhattan and the Bronx was in effect until 4 p.m., with an additional two to four inches of rain possible by the end of the day, according to the city’s emergency management system. Elected officials are also urging any New Yorkers in a basement apartment to get to higher ground.
For those who had larger travel plans, LaGuardia’s Terminal A remains closed since Friday morning and a long list of flights are disrupted and delayed. JFK and Newark are also reporting widespread delays.
“If you’re at home, stay home,” Mayor Eric Adams said during a press briefing about 11:30 a.m. on Friday. “If you are at work or school, shelter in place for now.”
If you have any photos of flooding on the Upper West Side, please feel free to send them to info@westsiderag.com
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Incredible — I went to sleep last night hoping for better weather for today –Wow! What an awful surprise.
This weather event was just reported for the last 2-3 days.. So much for staying informed.
Crab.
I wonder how this will impact the triathlon on Sunday. Rain stops tomorrow but the sewage flows into the river after it rains and the Hudson will be filthy. They did cancel the swim portion in 2021 due to high bacteria levels so curious to see what happens this weekend.
There has been zero notice about the triathlon.
Street closures at 96th likely to be major hardship for to Access a Ride, bus riders, getting to airport, getting to the hospital, Greenmarket farmers….
Not to mention various events on the East Side which will close streets
Do you people moan about the st Patrick’s parade and all the rest or only sporting events?
The NYC DOT website has plenty of information about street closures. You have to be proactive to get that info is it’s important enough to you.
I understand that the bicycling community would be unconcerned about street closures which impact bus transit.
Or if your elderly relatives live in the suburbs than no worries about those in the city.
But closing 96th Street (used to be 72nd) is huge – and egregious that DOT has not done heavy advance messaging.
Boris,
This event was formerly held in the summer.
Moreover closing north-south access on the west side is not just a “street closure” – it means all traffic must go East in order to move north-south.
Plus the people most likely to be harmed – elderly, disabled – less likely to easily navigate websites.
What does any of that have to do with my informing people that the NYC DOT website has all the information they claim to not heavy messaging about. It’s easy to sign up for email notifications that contain all that information. Eric Adams is not going to call anyone personally every time there’s new information.
Swim portion moved to Grand Central Parkway.
Today’s the day for the most important item in any New Yorker’s wardrobe: knee high rubber boots 🙂
I wonder how much the City has done to protect us from flood damage since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It has been 11 years since then and I have not seen any progress. My wife and I were at an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York about 8-9 years ago showing a number of different proposed flood control projects but we have never seen anything that ever came of this.
There’s $2 billion worth of coastal resiliency construction taking place on the lower east side of Manhattan, the island’s most vulnerable spot. Google ESCR and BMCR. There have already been floodgates installed.
In any city 2 billion would only build about 50 feet of sea wall after all the fraud and waste
Can’t help that anytime something is proposed, NIMBYs pop up to delay/block it
Did anyone else struggle with the transition from “flash flood alert” (so, OK, look for alternate bus routes, realize subways may be flooded, don’t plan to drive and offer your sofa to a friend who rents a basement) to “shelter in place and do not travel unless you are fleeing flood waters”?! That was…rough. Plus, before the shelter in place, people realized how many subway lines were going out of service, saw the shape of the trouble, and acted accordingly, knowing more rain was forecast. I urged a Staten Island employee to go home from the UWS at 10:15 am after checking that the 1 was still running (with delays but no suspension at that time.) With the forecast it just seemed likely to get worse. She would have done better to stay put – except for the uncertainty about getting to home with her adult but partly disabled child. By the time she got to the 1 train – maybe 20 mins later – it was suspended below 137th. So after a long wait she found a bus to go down to the Battery. Huge crowds waiting for the ferry (which could at least be counted on to run). Then bus chaos on SI – had to take a distant second best to a wet walk to get home and safe after 3 1/3 HOURS. The “shelter in place” notice came around 11:30 I think. I guess this stuff is hard to predict…but better safe – call a rain day, don’t send kids to school – than sorry BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE LONG COMMUTES AND FAMILIES in this town. They will absolutely try to get their kids and get home. Hmmm. Bad wildfire smoke: stay home (or to someplace with an air purifier). Bad rain event: stay home. Like the old snow days, back when it snowed. Except more of them.
Mandy,
So terrible for the SI person and her disabled child.
I think many in Manhattan (especially those working from home, getting food/ecommerce delivery) have no idea what it is like to commute to/from the boroughs on a normal day let alone during storm-catastrophe flooding.
People were stranded on Friday.
I left work early – and was lucky in that I got on 2 buses and it only took 3 hours door-to-door (normally 40 minutes by subway)
Eric Adams really dropped the ball here. He’s more interested in becoming the next Ray Kelly as opposed to running the city. I miss De Blasio.
I do NOT miss De Blasio, but I am surprised that rain storms that weren’t even hurricanes disabled the city so seriously. Surely heavy rains in NYC in autumn are not surprising. Did they always flood the subways so badly?
Both myself and my home health aide missed any warning to “stay home” as a result, she traveled two and a half hours by multiple subways and busses to get to me. And she only lives 30 minutes away by subway on the line that goes right to where I live. Going home was even worse: It took her three hours.
Neither of us could afford to have her use a car service (if any available), uber or curb.
I watched the morning news and NOBODY said “stay home” only what MIGHT happen. People who need every day’s pay that they work? Some didn’t even have the option to stay home.
Don’t know how many retail outlets or restaurants or other stores closed or never opened.
City has had poor communication, to put it mildly, under Adams.