At least 41 people have died in and around New York City, which was hit by torrential rains and historic flash flooding overnight Wednesday through Thursday, according to a new and evolving toll Thursday night.
In the neighboring state of New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy announced “saddened” to the press that “at least 23 residents of New Jersey had lost their lives” in this storm Idawhich had already wreaked havoc last weekend in New Orleans as a hurricane.
New York City and its surrounding suburbs have reported 15 deaths, and three people have died near Philadelphia, according to police and local authorities.
The megalopolis woke up Thursday sounded and bereaved: among the New York victims include a 2-year-old child and an 86-year-old.
Streets, avenues and expressways of the city have been transformed into torrents, both in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens and in Westchester County, north of the city. Several lines of the gigantic New York subway network were still at a standstill on Thursday evening after the flooding of many stations.
Never seen “
The National Weather Service (NWS), the American weather service, recorded an absolute record of 80 mm of rain in one hour in Central Park.
“I’m 50 years old and I’ve never seen so much rain,” testified Metodija Mihajlov, a restaurant owner on the very chic Upper West Side, near the famous park, New York’s green lung. “It was like in the jungle, a tropical rain. Amazing,” the trader added.
In the middle of the night Wednesday through Thursday, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency following “major” flooding in all of the city’s border counties, potentially affecting some 20 million inhabitants. Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, a city already bruised by the COVID-19 pandemic, deplored in a tweet a “historic meteorological event”, also declaring a state of emergency.
Thursday, while many New Yorkers were mopping up their cellars, several voices attributed this event to climate change, when New York had already suffered very heavy rains when the storm passed. Henri, at the end of August. “Global warming is upon us and it will get worse and worse if we do nothing,” warned Democratic Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer.
According to the NWS, this state of emergency due to flash floods is a first in the history of the megalopolis, already hit in October 2012 by the hurricane Sandy.
At the end of August, New York and its region had already been affected by the storm Henri. The bad weather on August 21 had also prematurely ended a major concert given in Central Park, supposed to symbolize the return to a more festive life after the coronavirus pandemic.
the hurricane Idadowngraded since in post-tropical cyclone, continues to bring in its wake heavy rains on the American east coast.
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