Do you remember Hurricane Ida and the havoc it created in Jamaica, Columbia, Louisiana, the East Coast of the United States, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Venezuela, the Gulf Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada? Now,
If you don’t, it was a hurricane which took place from August 2021 to September 5th 2021. Coincidently occurring on the very same day as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – August 29 this year New York had a flash flood wash over the city, grinding the nation’s largest city to a grinding halt and also catching millions of people unaware!
With record-breaking rainfall, rainfall can be seen spurting from between subway station tiles, and cars bobbing amidst the flood waters. Amidst this, intersections of Brooklyn have been turned into lakes and even parts of LaGuardia airport – Terminal A was forced to close down. Many flights were cancelled, leaving passengers stranded.
More than 8 inches of rain fell at JFK Airport and 4.87 inches at La Guardia Airport. 6 inches of rainfall was recorded in Manhattan!
While flooding is a significantly longer event lasting for many days or weeks; flash floods, which are caused by torrential rain last for a far shorter period of time. With over 150 schools being flooded, massive traffic jams, inundated city streets, and residents being trapped in their cars – especially in Queens and Brooklyn. With extensive flooding happening in the city’s transit system – impacting commuter rail and subway service for at least 4 million daily riders, imagine the mayhem that was caused throughout the city.
One of the hospitals in Brooklyn – Woodhull Hospital was forced to evacuate 120 patients owing to a power outage that was caused by a storm. Patients have been moved to other nearby city hospitals like Bellevue and Kings County.
We can only find so many faults in man, but in a world that is shaped by climate change and inequality, it is important to deal with the side effects of disasters such as disease outbreaks, severe storms and air quality vulnerabilities.
With unnecessary chaos and frustration, most people in New York are left to deal with the consequences of this disaster and somehow be able to return to the normalcy of work. Besides this, children too have to deal with these floods – making their way to schools through rushing waters, etc.
As New York is finally making its way to the recovery phase, we can’t help but look back and ponder over the thought that this could also be a strange apocalypse, a strange disaster or even a catastrophe.
Every weather disaster is CLEARLY a BIG sign that something needs to be done. So, while New York was ‘brought to its knees’ in these flash floods, how long will it take to take the drastic steps required to avoid such problems?
