Two people die in flooded New York basements during heavy rainstorm

Two people died in flooded New York City basements Thursday during a rainstorm that shut down roadways and caused airport delays, authorities said.

A scuba team recovered the body of a 39-year-old man after firefighters received a call of a person trapped in a flooded basement in Brooklyn at about 4:30 pm, police said. The man, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

In Manhattan, a 43-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene after witnesses said he lost consciousness and became unresponsive inside a flooded basement boiler room, police said. The cause of death was under investigation.

 

Some spots around the city saw record rainfall. Preliminary reports showed 1.8 inch of rain fell in Central Park on Thursday, which would surpass the record of 1.64 inches set for the park in 1917, the National Weather Service said. LaGuardia Airport recorded 1.97 inch of rain, which would break the 1955 record of 1.18 inches for that airport.

New York saw hours of rainfall of varying intensity Thursday leading into the evening commute. Photos and video on social media showed water rising to the bumpers of cars and pouring into subway stations.

When you look at the amount of water that was coming down, our sewer systems are just not built to handle that. It was a steady rain, throughout, Mayor Eric Adams told radio station 1010 WINS.

The hazards that flash flooding can pose to residents of the city's thousands of basement apartments came into sharp relief in 2021, when heavy rainfall killed 11 people in such dwellings.