Η New York was in a daze yesterday, Thursday, 02/09, as she was beaten during the night torrential rain and sudden floods of historic proportions, resulting in at least 41 people lose their lives because of the catastrophic passage of the storm Ida first in the south and then in the north of the USA.
In the metropolis, the American economic and cultural capital, the police counted at least 12 deaths. Eleven people are believed to have been trapped and drowned in basements, in poor housing in sometimes unsanitary conditions, in properties in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.
The people who died ranged from 2 to 86 years old. The fire brigade provided assistance to hundreds of residents.
North of Manhattan, the affluent Westchester neighborhood by the sea remained flooded with muddy water; George Latimer, a local official, told CNN that three people, apparently trapped and trying to get out of the car they were in, probably drowned.
New Jersey, facing New York City, recorded the worst death toll, with «at least 23 people losing their lives», Governor Phil Murphy said «with sadness». Most of the victims were seized by hexaphanic flooding while in their cars and possibly drowned, the governor explained.
Near Philadelphia, three people died, according to local authorities.
Streets, highways, freeways and expressways were transformed into torrents in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens as well as in Westchester County. In the latter, dozens of cars were submerged in muddy water while basements of traditional, beautiful homes on the East Coast were flooded with water up to 60 centimetres.
«I think I've lost everything,» Marcio Rodriguez, a garage owner in the community of Mamaronec, told Agence France-Presse with tears in his flooded shop.
New York's giant subway system partially resumed operation yesterday after several flooded stations were cleaned.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) recorded an all-time record rainfall in Central Park: 80 mm in one hour.
«I've never seen so much rain before»
«I'm 50 years old and I've never seen so much rain,» said Metodia Mihailoff, a restaurateur in the posh Upper West Side neighborhood near the notorious park, New York's green lung. «It was like being in the jungle, tropical rain. It was unbelievable,» the businessman added.
Overnight, New York's new governor, Kathy Hokeel, declared «state of emergency» after «major» flooding in all counties within the city limits, which could affect up to 20 million residents. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose city is just beginning to recover from the pandemic of the new coronavirus, referred to a «historic weather phenomenon».
The declaration of a «state of emergency» due to flooding is unprecedented in New York City, NWS noted.
Climate change
New Yorkers were cleaning out their basements yesterday while several politicians pointed out that the extreme weather events were due to climate deregulation, two weeks after the rains of Storm Henry and nine years after Hurricane Sandy. «Global warming is just around the corner and will get worse and worse if we do nothing,» warned New York's Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.
Tornadoes and floods of enormous proportions also hit Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.
Extreme weather events are common in the USA. But rising ocean surface temperatures are causing much more powerful cyclones and hurricanes, scientists warn.
They are increasingly increasing the level of risk to coastal communities, they add.
Ο Cyclone Ida, downgraded to a tropical storm, continues its path northward, lying over New England.
The US President Joe Biden is expected to visit Louisiana today, Friday, the state in the American South that was hit by Cyclone Ida on Sunday, destroying many buildings and cutting power to about a million households. «We are all in this together. The nation is ready to help,» the White House occupant said simply.
President Joe Biden declares a state of emergency in New York and New Jersey
US President Joe Biden declares a state of emergency in the states of New Jersey and New York and instructed federal agencies to assist local authorities' efforts to deal with the widespread damage left behind by Storm Ida.
The occupant of the White House «authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency» to «assume coordination of disaster relief efforts for those affected by the disaster» in the two states, according to a press release from the U.S. presidency.
Widespread flooding caused by Ida, initially a cyclone that was later downgraded to a tropical storm, killed at least 44 people in four northeastern US states.
