New York City is flooding again
New York City is flooding again
I spent the last two hours picking things up off the floor and going outside to clear leaves from our patio drain.
Rainwater in the backyard rose to four inches deep and came up to the back door threshold. My clothes are soaked. At this time of year leaves have fallen and they float to the drain and slow the drainage.
So much rain was falling that water from the city drainage system was spouting up the patio drain into the yard. Some water came into our back room. It was a small amount. I was able to mop it up.
I looked for a good weather report and did not find any. I did see that New York City was going to get some 4 to 8 inches of rain this morning.
Two years ago hurricane Ida blew through. The basement-level of my apartment flooded. Water came up through the floor and from around the baseboard. The flood came suddenly. I was in my office and I noticed that water was at my feet. I had seconds to unplug my computer.
Five inches of water flooded the entire basement. I frantically picked things off the floor and propped things up. The water came so fast. Once the rain slowed the water in the apartment drained away, almost as quickly as it came.
I lost a lot of things that day. I had artwork under my bed. My records were on a shelf two inches from the floor but they got soaked anyway.
Since then I've put many things higher off the ground but it is easy to get lax. Boxes and things are sitting on the floor again.
Hurricane Ida dropped four inches of rain on Queens, New York within an hour. Today's rain might have been worse for me. The difference between coming to the threshold and pouring in is about a centimeter deep.
It is still raining. It will rain all day and tomorrow.
I am watching the weather now. Last week a hurricane blew past New York and landed on Nova Scotia. I watched it cross the Atlantic from Africa and drift past the coast. Does this storm have a name? I did not know it was coming.
I have lived in this house for thirteen years and this is a new phenomenon. Last year a huge rainstorm came and also reached the threshold of my doorway. A small amount of water came into the apartment that day as well.
It isn't only climate change. A lot of new construction here in Old Astoria has made the terrain less able to sustain high quantities of rain. Apartment buildings that occupy the entire property footprint replace houses that had yards. Any part of the properties that are not buildings are now parking lots.
Rain is coming off the hill a block away and the catch basins are unable to drain the water fast enough. That's why water is spouting up in my backyard.
I would like to see houses with yards protected in New York. I would like to see a moratorium on new building in Astoria until we have a sustainable plan for the future of the city. We have wildlife in our neighborhood. Birds. Raccoons and possums live here. They deserve to have a habitat. We need trees and land that can absorb catastrophic storms.
We need bigger drainage systems to channel the water that now comes from big new apartment buildings. The city owes us that.
Right now there is a housing shortage in New York and an influx of people who come as refugees. City government is in a hurry to create more housing. But we need environmental planning as well.
Our elected officials are pro-immigration. It has become an electric third-rail to advocate otherwise. New York City will be able to absorb the recent influx of people. The land may not be able to sustain the environmental strain.
Robert Moses built a bridge and highways that cut through the middle of Astoria. Astoria has had a divided government ever since. There is very little city planning. Builders who build, sell, and go, make our land-use decisions. There is no long term plan.
I am looking for information online. I can see that I am lucky to have had only a mop-full of water come into my apartment. Many New Yorkers are having it much worse right now. I've watched and re-posted many videos on Twitter. I now know this storm is named Ophelia.
The rain has slowed for a moment. Instead of the sound of rain I hear a constant scream of sirens.
It is now afternoon and my phone has blasted an emergency alert, making me jump. The big flood was passing two hours ago. This is the first alert. It says that the flood warning will stay in effect until 2:30 pm. Online I saw a weather map saying that there will be heavy rain tonight at 7 pm. All I have is Internet rumors. I cannot tell what information is accurate.
The storm is a whirlpool spinning over New York City. The storm is swinging south and swirling back around. We will continue to need information about the weather conditions in real time. That kind of weather communication does not exist. I'm not finding real-time storm information online right now.
It is still raining.
The previous, 150-year-old hourly rainfall record in Central Park has now been broken three times in 2 years. (1.94" in Henri-2021, 3.15" in Ida-2021, and now 1.96" in 2023). *