Nearly two inches of rain fell in just three hours.
Ditmas Park saw clogged storm drains due to leaves and other debris. Photo by Erica Price
by Olivia Seaman, Brooklyn Paper
Heavy rain lashed Brooklyn on Thursday, flooding streets, submerging cars and killing at least one person. Nearly two inches of rain fell in parts of the district in just three hours.
The city remained under a wind advisory until Friday afternoon as cleanup efforts continued across the five boroughs.
In East Flatbush, the FDBY Scuba Team recovered the body of a 39-year-old man from a flooded basement. According to ABC7he was found “unconscious and unresponsive” and taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A similar fatal incident occurred in Washington Heights.
Neighbors told Brooklyn Paper that he had tried to save his two dogs when water poured into the basement apartment. They said he managed to get one dog, Luna, outside before being overwhelmed when he returned for the second pet.
The diving team used, among other things, a dewatering pump to reach the victim, but he was pronounced dead on the spot. His name has not yet been released by authorities.
Nearby neighborhoods, including Ditmas Park, also experienced severe flooding, filling intersections and basements with water. In a statement posted on InstagramCouncilor Rita Joseph said she was “deeply saddened” to hear of the flood-related deaths in her district.
She also called for better flood infrastructure across the city.
“Now more than ever, we must be vigilant and reaffirm the call for additional resources and infrastructure investments in our neighborhoods,” she said.
Farther north, near the Gowanus Canal — one of Brooklyn’s most flood-prone areas — cars were half-submerged and pedestrians stranded as rising waters caused pollution in the canal, a designated federal Superfund site.
In South Brooklyn, Councilman Justin Brannan said city agencies responded to multiple intersections “flooded with stormwater.”
“Yesterday’s forecast called for 1.5 to 2 inches of rain over an eight-hour span between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. Instead, that rain fell within a 10-minute span,” Brannan wrote in a Facebook post.
“New York City’s sewer system, designed to handle 1 to 1.5 inches of rain per hour, could be overwhelmed by rainfall of today’s intensity,” his statement said. “DEP received nearly 1,000 calls to 311 regarding flooding between 3 and 5 p.m. In most cases, flooding subsided quickly after the most intense rainfall – between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. across much of the city – subsided. DEP has 38 crews and 19 supervisors responding to locations throughout the city.”
Before the storm, NYC Emergency Management and Mayor Eric Adams said they were working closely with the National Weather Service to “monitor a low-pressure system forecast.”
“New Yorkers know how to handle severe weather, and we will weather Thursday’s storm the same way we always do: together and prepared,” Adams said. “Our teams across the city are ready to respond.”
The National Weather Service reports from Thursday 9 p.m included as much as 2.79 inches of rain in Sheepshead Bay, 1.82 inches in Prospect Park, 1.79 inches in Dyker Heights, and an average of about two inches across the entire municipality.
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally appeared in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.
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