State of Emergency declared in New York amid torrential rainfall

New York has been put under a state of emergency after torrential rain and flash floods brought the state to a standstill. Torrential downpours after a week of mostly steady rainfall brought flash flooding to New York City on Friday, disrupting subway service, inundating ground-level apartments and turning some streets into small lakes. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “I am declaring a State of Emergency across New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley due to the extreme rainfall we’re seeing throughout the region.”

Almost eight inches (20 cm) of rain fell in some parts of the most populous city in the US, enough to enable a sea lion at Central Park Zoo to swim briefly out of the confines of her pool enclosure. Another few inches could fall in the region before the storm system pushed out to sea later on Friday, forecasters said. Flooding caused major disruptions to New York’s subway system and the Metro North commuter rail service, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which operates both. Some subway lines were suspended entirely, and many stations were closed. Some bus routes slowed to a crawl, trapping riders for hours. Officials warned some New Yorkers to avoid traveling unless they were fleeing a flooded area.

Systems producing intense rainfalls such as Friday have become more common in many parts of the US, including the New York City area.

Global warming has produced more extreme weather patterns in much of the world, according to climate scientists.

The rain capped one of New York’s wettest Septembers on record, with 13.74 inches (34.9 cm) of rain falling during the month as of 11 am on Friday, and more on the way, said Dominic Ramunni, a National Weather Service forecaster. The all-time high was set in 1882 when 16.82 inches (42.72 cm) fell in September.

“I don’t know if we’ll beat the record, but we’ll come close,” Ramunni said.

It was the rainiest day at the city’s John F. Kennedy International Airport since records began in 1948, the New York office of the National Weather Service said, citing preliminary data.

Despite the warnings, the city’s public schools were open for the day. Some buildings experienced flooding but no operations were affected, a district spokesperson said.

At least one suburban district, Bronxville just north of New York, dismissed students early because of the worsening flooding.

Friday’s deluge followed a bout of heavy downpours and strong winds last weekend from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia. That storm soaked New York City and caused widespread power outages in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

In New York, intermittent rain this week further saturated the ground, setting up conditions conducive to flash flooding.