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A worker tries to unclog the drains on a street in Brooklyn
Photo: ED JONES / AFP
Devastating flash floods, flooded subway stations and at least 14 deaths: The foothills of Hurricane Ida hit the US metropolis of New York hard on Thursday night.
For the first time in the history of the megacity, the National Weather Service declared a "flash flood emergency".
Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke of a "historic weather event" with "record rainfall throughout the city, heavy flooding and dangerous conditions on our streets."
He attributed the catastrophic record rain to climate change.
You are "in a new world," declared the mayor.
"That's the biggest wake-up call we could get." From now on, every storm in New York would have to be of similar magnitude - measures against global warming would have to be stepped up nationwide.
The districts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, among others, were affected in New York.
At least nine people died there.
Eight of them could not have escaped from their basements in Queens and Brooklyn, police said.
The victims were between two and 86 years old.
The rescue workers were on duty all night and had to rescue hundreds of people.
Another four people were killed in the city of Elizabeth City in neighboring New Jersey, a city hall spokesman told the AFP news agency.
Another death was reported in the city of Passaic.
Local media reported at least 22 dead in the New York area.
Flooded subway stations and airport terminals
"Get yourself to safety now," the New York authorities warned, warning of flying debris. Many streets in the metropolis turned into rivers within a very short time, subway stations were flooded, New York airports cut hundreds of flight connections. A video showed a flooded terminal in Newark. In Central Park, 80 millimeters of rain fell within an hour - a record. The weather service urged all residents to stay at home. The US Open tennis tournament also had to be interrupted on Wednesday evening when rain poured through the roof of the tennis hall.
A state of emergency has been declared for the entire state of New York. Governor Kathy Hochul said that the move should enable all those affected to get help as quickly as possible. Storm damage has also been reported from other areas in the northeastern United States. Tens of thousands of households in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey were without electricity. In the state of Maryland, a 19-year-old died in a flood and another person went missing.
"Ida" hit land over the weekend as a level four hurricane in southern Louisiana.
The cyclone wreaked havoc there, weakened as a result and moved on towards the northeast of the United States.
US President Joe Biden is expected in Louisiana on Friday, he wants to get an idea of the extent of the damage.
More than 900,000 households in the state still have no electricity.
Biden: "We have to act"
Biden also sees the devastating storms, thunderstorms and forest fires in the USA as evidence of the climate crisis.
The country's infrastructure must be adapted to the threat situation, said Biden on Thursday in the White House.
Storms, floods and fires would occur more frequently and be more violent in the future.
"We have to take action."
He thanked the helpers for their commitment and promised those affected by "Ida" in the south and the subsequent flooding in the north-east of the United States that the federal government would support them.
The same applies to those affected by the forest fires in the Sierra Nevada in California.
Biden said "Ida" was the fifth largest hurricane in the United States on record.
Only a week and a half ago, the tropical storm "Henri" caused power outages and floods in the northeastern United States.
nek / AFP