Ida in the Gulf

[missy]

So our area (NYC and parts of NJ) had epic rainfall overnight and flash flooding. At least 7 people in our area have died so far. Most of the airports are closed and roads unsafe due to flooding. Ida hit hard here with loss of life. The winds are still strong but the rain has stopped at least for us.

For all those affected I am keeping good thoughts for you and pray you stay safe.
Mother Nature doesn't fool around.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

So our area (NYC and parts of NJ) had epic rainfall overnight and flash flooding. At least 7 people in our area have died so far. Most of the airports are closed and roads unsafe due to flooding. Ida hit hard here with loss of life. The winds are still strong but the rain has stopped at least for us.

For all those affected I am keeping good thoughts for you and pray you stay safe.
Mother Nature doesn't fool around.

Missy last night was TERRIFYING! How did your parents home manage?

 

[Arcadian]

Ida keeps bringing gifts Def. a storm name thats being retired considering its size and widespread damage. My understanding is that its still ongoing in the NE. I saw some reports of Tornadoes up there, seen a few vids of them to (NJ)

@missy @Asscherhalo_lover I'm glad you guys are doing well. Someone I worked with did have to evacuate in Pennsylvania. They're fine but maybe not their house!

I haven't heard from some of my friends in Massachusetts yet.

 

[missy]

Missy last night was TERRIFYING! How did your parents home manage?

Flooded. It is bad. My poor parents. But at least they are safe and so many cannot say that so I am supremely grateful they are ok. Thanks for asking.

They are so stubborn. My dad is 87 and he works like a horse every time they flood. They refuse to move. It’s too much for them but they are hard headed. I pray my dad won’t get a heart attack from how hard he works. and my mom too. She is not in great health and she is almost 79.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

Flooded. It is bad. My poor parents. But at least they are safe and so many cannot say that so I am supremely grateful they are ok. Thanks for asking.

They are so stubborn. My dad is 87 and he works like a horse every time they flood. They refuse to move. It’s too much for them but they are hard headed. I pray my dad won’t get a heart attack from how hard he works. and my mom too. She is not in great health and she is almost 79.

Oh goodness, I know you said they just got hit with Henri so I knew this had to be worse. My Mother is similarly stubborn (she did most of her own reno after Sandy) and I'm already trying to get it in her head now that we will live together in the next decade.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I saw live feeds of the water and damage and it made me very sad. @missy I wondered how your parents were managing and was worried. + @Asscherhalo_lover . Drying vibes across the miles......

kind regards--Sharon

 

[PinkAndBlueBling]

I'm currently watching video from St. John the Baptist Parish, LA. Such devastation! Flooding always blows my mind - I just can't fathom it and how destructive it is, even long term.

 

[HollyJane]

Everybody on the east coast is getting some of Ida.

Oh gosh, thats rough! I have seen from some who've been posting the lines. Scares me a when I think about what that would be like here (they can be bad even on a threat of hurricane)

Gasbuddy seems to be what most are mentioning, and Sam's Club but one must be a member to get gas. Some of the live feeds I've posted aren't working anymore (which is rough too) so its hard to tell whats going on where.

I feel like a mom for asking but I'm hoping you're getting some decent meals?

Hey @Arcadian

I've been really fortunate. Things are coming back around here, faster than we anticipated, so things are getting easier.

I nervous cooked up a storm before the hurricane. Lol. I understand a lot of people did. One thing I always have plenty of is eggs! My older hens have kept laying an egg a day throughout all this. And my cooking is propane. With utilities, I don't like to put all my eggs in one basket. Lol. Pun intended.

 

[missy]

Oh goodness, I know you said they just got hit with Henri so I knew this had to be worse. My Mother is similarly stubborn (she did most of her own reno after Sandy) and I'm already trying to get it in her head now that we will live together in the next decade.

That is great you guys have a plan. I love and adore my parents but we cannot live together. Both sides agree on that lol. My parents are way too independent and would not even consider that and honestly when I left home at age 16 to go to college I never moved back home. I lived in a dorm then an apartment and then I bought a place in my twenties. We do better not living together. But I would love them to move to a more manageable home. I spoke again about it yesterday with my mom to no avail. They said they actually had looked but nothing was as nice as what they have now. She wants a house with land and a pool (what they have now) and they must take animals. No places like that exist within their budget. They have lots of animals. So we are OOL. I worry about the future but I don't know what else I can do.

You are lucky you have a good plan in place with your mom @Asscherhalo_lover.

HI:

I saw live feeds of the water and damage and it made me very sad. @missy I wondered how your parents were managing and was worried. + @Asscherhalo_lover . Drying vibes across the miles......

kind regards--Sharon

Thank you Sharon. My mom already met with her carpet guy and they are ripping out all the carpet in their above ground basement and putting waterproof tiles in its place. MY mom hates tile but it is the best option. They have flooded way too much in the last decade so hopefully this will help.

 

[missy]

So the death toll here was greater than originally reported. No surprises there.

Flooding From Ida Kills Dozens of People in Four States

At least 43 people were killed, many of them in basement apartments, in a storm caused by the remnants of a hurricane that struck New Orleans days earlier.

www.nytimes.com

"

Flooding From Ida Kills Dozens of People in Four States​

Published Sept. 2, 2021Updated Sept. 3, 2021, 5:52 a.m. ET
At least 43 people were killed, many of them in basement apartments, in a storm caused by the remnants of a hurricane that struck New Orleans days earlier.

• Go here for the latest on the aftermath of deadly flooding in the New York area.

Here’s what you need to know:​

• New Yorkers tried to save neighbors from Ida’s floods. Sometimes they couldn’t.
• Philadelphia is inundated by floodwaters as Ida leaves a trail of destruction in the Mid-Atlantic.
• Biden calls extreme weather ‘one of the great challenges of our time.’
• Transit in the New York City area slowly returns after severe flooding.
• The storm’s toll highlighted New York City’s shadow world of basement apartments.
• Wreckage everywhere, Niagara Falls in the streets: Scenes from Ida’s path.
• Climate change is making storms wetter and wilder. Here’s how.

At least 43 are dead after Ida causes flooding in four states.​

Ida’s remnants brought historic hourly rainfall to New York and New Jersey.​

Each bar represents one recorded hour of precipitation in Newark.

Sept. 1, 2021
Between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., Ida dropped a record 3.24 inches of rain in Newark — nearly an inch more rain than the previous hourly record in 2006.
3 inches per hour

Sept. 1, 2021
Ida also produced the seventh-highest hourly rainfall, dropping 1.82 inches between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.


Note: The totals are reported for hourly intervals as defined by METAR, which end on the 53rd or 54th minute of the hour. For example, an hour noted as starting at 3 p.m. actually starts around 2:53 p.m. Aatish Bhatia contributed analysis.
Source: Iowa State University I.E.M. Computed Hourly Precipitation Totals
By Charlie Smart

The rain broke records set just 11 days before by Tropical Storm Henri, underscoring warnings from climate scientists of a new normal on a warmed planet: Hotter air holds more water and allows storms to gather strength more quickly and grow ever larger.
Many of New York City’s subway lines remained suspended into the evening on Thursday. Airports were open, but hundreds of flights had been canceled.
In New York City, the dead ranged in age from a 2-year-old boy to an 86-year-old woman, the police said. Some drowned in basement apartments in Queens, where a system of makeshift and mostly illegally converted living spaces has sprung up.
On Thursday afternoon, Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey announced that at least 23 people in the state had died. They included four people found dead in an apartment complex in Elizabeth and two people killed in Hillsborough after they became trapped in their vehicles, local officials said. Another death occurred in Passaic, N.J., where the Passaic River breached its banks and fish flopped in the streets.


Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut announced that the state would lower flags to half-staff to honor Brian Mohl, a state police sergeant whose car was swept away by the floodwaters.
The 3.15 inches of rain that fell in Central Park in one hour on Wednesday eclipsed the record-breaking one-hour rainfall of 1.94 inches on Aug. 21. The National Weather Service, struggling to depict the level of danger, declared a flash flood emergency in New York City for the first time.
In Bergen County, New Jersey’s most populous county, James Tedesco, the county executive and a former firefighter, said on Thursday: “We have not complete devastation but close to it. This is as bad as I’ve ever seen it.”
Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard, Jonah E. Bromwich, Maria Cramer, Isabella Grullón Paz, Matthew Haag, Jesus Jiménez, Michael Levenson, Eduardo Medina, Andy Newman, Azi Paybarah, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Neil Vigdor Ali Watkins and Ashley Wong.

New Yorkers tried to save neighbors from Ida’s floods. Sometimes they couldn’t.​

Roxanna Florentino looked at the damage in the basement of the building where she lives in Brooklyn on Thursday. Her neighbor, Roberto Bravo, died there on Wednesday night as surging waters poured in.Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
The torrents from Ida’s waters cascaded through New York City basement doors and windows, turning everyday spaces into death traps.
In Woodside, Queens, Deborah Torres said she heard the desperate pleas from the basement of three members of a family, including a toddler.
As the water rushed into the building around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Ms. Torres said she heard the family frantically call out to another neighbor, Choi Sledge. Ms. Sledge pleaded with the family to flee.
Within moments, however, the cascade of water was too powerful, and it also kept anyone from trying to get downstairs to help.
“It was impossible,” said Ms. Torres, who lives on the first floor. “It was like a pool.”
The family did not survive.
Darlene Lee, 48, was in a basement apartment that belonged to the super of a condominium in Central Parkway, Queens. Flooding burst through a glass sliding door in the apartment, and quickly filled it with about six feet of murky water.
The water pinned Ms. Lee between the apartment’s steel front door and the door frame, leaving her wedged and unable to escape.
Patricia Fuentes, the property manager, had just gotten off work when she heard Ms. Lee screaming for help and found her stuck. Ms. Fuentes ran to the lobby to call for aid, and Jayson Jordan, the assistant super, and Andy Tapia, a handyman, jumped through the broken glass door to get to Ms. Lee.
But they could not save her. Ms. Lee was pinned and Mr. Tapia tried to help her keep her above the chin-deep water. Eventually, the men were able to pry her from the door, but it was too late, Mr. Jordan said. Ms. Lee was killed by the storm.
In Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, Ricardo Garcia was awakened by a surge of water that he said exploded through the door of his shared basement apartment at about 10:15 p.m. In moments, it was up to his knees, then his waist, then his chest.
Mr. Garcia, 50, banged on the door next to his, waking another roommate, Oliver De La Cruz, who was shaking on Thursday morning as he looked at the water stains that reached to the ceiling of his ruined room.
Image

Ricardo Garcia, who also lives in the Cypress Hills building’s basement, salvaged what he could from his room. Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
“I almost died inside here, I almost died, man,” said Mr. De La Cruz, 22.
Mr. De La Cruz broke down his bedroom door to escape in his boxer shorts. Mr. Garcia said that he and Mr. De La Cruz climbed to the first floor, struggling against the water pouring down the stairs.
Mr. De La Cruz found his upstairs neighbor, Roxanna Florentino, who has lived in the building for 18 years. She said she heard another man, 66-year-old Roberto Bravo, crying out for help from a back bedroom in the basement apartment.
Image

Roberto BravoCredit...via Pablo Bravo
Ms. Florentino said Mr. Bravo was pleading for help in Spanish, and neighbors were trying to reach him. But water was pouring through both the front door and a window. She realized Mr. Bravo’s screaming had stopped.
On Thursday, it was clear that the water had risen so forcefully where Mr. Bravo had been that it tore off the door and broke though the ceiling, leaving dank decay. The Ecuadorean flag hanging on his wall was soaked and muddied, the floor below strewn with debris, along with a water-stained photo of Mr. Bravo in a tuxedo at a formal event.
Image

Mr. Bravo, in tuxedo, seated at the right.Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
Ms. Florentino made her first of four 911 calls at 10:15 p.m. Firefighters arrived an hour later. They brought out Mr. Bravo’s body.
She tried to sleep but each time she drifted off, she heard Mr. Bravo’s voice, calling a last time.
“It’s so hard when someone asks for help and you can’t help them,” she said.
— Jesse McKinley, Nate Schweber, Amanda Rosa and Chelsia Rose Marcius

​

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

So the death toll here was greater than originally reported. No surprises there.

Flooding From Ida Kills Dozens of People in Four States

At least 43 people were killed, many of them in basement apartments, in a storm caused by the remnants of a hurricane that struck New Orleans days earlier.

www.nytimes.com

"

Flooding From Ida Kills Dozens of People in Four States​

Published Sept. 2, 2021Updated Sept. 3, 2021, 5:52 a.m. ET
At least 43 people were killed, many of them in basement apartments, in a storm caused by the remnants of a hurricane that struck New Orleans days earlier.

• Go here for the latest on the aftermath of deadly flooding in the New York area.

Here’s what you need to know:​

• New Yorkers tried to save neighbors from Ida’s floods. Sometimes they couldn’t.
• Philadelphia is inundated by floodwaters as Ida leaves a trail of destruction in the Mid-Atlantic.
• Biden calls extreme weather ‘one of the great challenges of our time.’
• Transit in the New York City area slowly returns after severe flooding.
• The storm’s toll highlighted New York City’s shadow world of basement apartments.
• Wreckage everywhere, Niagara Falls in the streets: Scenes from Ida’s path.
• Climate change is making storms wetter and wilder. Here’s how.

At least 43 are dead after Ida causes flooding in four states.​

Ida’s remnants brought historic hourly rainfall to New York and New Jersey.​

Each bar represents one recorded hour of precipitation in Newark.

Sept. 1, 2021
Between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., Ida dropped a record 3.24 inches of rain in Newark — nearly an inch more rain than the previous hourly record in 2006.
3 inches per hour

Sept. 1, 2021
Ida also produced the seventh-highest hourly rainfall, dropping 1.82 inches between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.


Note: The totals are reported for hourly intervals as defined by METAR, which end on the 53rd or 54th minute of the hour. For example, an hour noted as starting at 3 p.m. actually starts around 2:53 p.m. Aatish Bhatia contributed analysis.
Source: Iowa State University I.E.M. Computed Hourly Precipitation Totals
By Charlie Smart

The rain broke records set just 11 days before by Tropical Storm Henri, underscoring warnings from climate scientists of a new normal on a warmed planet: Hotter air holds more water and allows storms to gather strength more quickly and grow ever larger.
Many of New York City’s subway lines remained suspended into the evening on Thursday. Airports were open, but hundreds of flights had been canceled.
In New York City, the dead ranged in age from a 2-year-old boy to an 86-year-old woman, the police said. Some drowned in basement apartments in Queens, where a system of makeshift and mostly illegally converted living spaces has sprung up.
On Thursday afternoon, Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey announced that at least 23 people in the state had died. They included four people found dead in an apartment complex in Elizabeth and two people killed in Hillsborough after they became trapped in their vehicles, local officials said. Another death occurred in Passaic, N.J., where the Passaic River breached its banks and fish flopped in the streets.


Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut announced that the state would lower flags to half-staff to honor Brian Mohl, a state police sergeant whose car was swept away by the floodwaters.
The 3.15 inches of rain that fell in Central Park in one hour on Wednesday eclipsed the record-breaking one-hour rainfall of 1.94 inches on Aug. 21. The National Weather Service, struggling to depict the level of danger, declared a flash flood emergency in New York City for the first time.
In Bergen County, New Jersey’s most populous county, James Tedesco, the county executive and a former firefighter, said on Thursday: “We have not complete devastation but close to it. This is as bad as I’ve ever seen it.”
Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard, Jonah E. Bromwich, Maria Cramer, Isabella Grullón Paz, Matthew Haag, Jesus Jiménez, Michael Levenson, Eduardo Medina, Andy Newman, Azi Paybarah, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Neil Vigdor Ali Watkins and Ashley Wong.

New Yorkers tried to save neighbors from Ida’s floods. Sometimes they couldn’t.​

Roxanna Florentino looked at the damage in the basement of the building where she lives in Brooklyn on Thursday. Her neighbor, Roberto Bravo, died there on Wednesday night as surging waters poured in.Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
The torrents from Ida’s waters cascaded through New York City basement doors and windows, turning everyday spaces into death traps.
In Woodside, Queens, Deborah Torres said she heard the desperate pleas from the basement of three members of a family, including a toddler.
As the water rushed into the building around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Ms. Torres said she heard the family frantically call out to another neighbor, Choi Sledge. Ms. Sledge pleaded with the family to flee.
Within moments, however, the cascade of water was too powerful, and it also kept anyone from trying to get downstairs to help.
“It was impossible,” said Ms. Torres, who lives on the first floor. “It was like a pool.”
The family did not survive.
Darlene Lee, 48, was in a basement apartment that belonged to the super of a condominium in Central Parkway, Queens. Flooding burst through a glass sliding door in the apartment, and quickly filled it with about six feet of murky water.
The water pinned Ms. Lee between the apartment’s steel front door and the door frame, leaving her wedged and unable to escape.
Patricia Fuentes, the property manager, had just gotten off work when she heard Ms. Lee screaming for help and found her stuck. Ms. Fuentes ran to the lobby to call for aid, and Jayson Jordan, the assistant super, and Andy Tapia, a handyman, jumped through the broken glass door to get to Ms. Lee.
But they could not save her. Ms. Lee was pinned and Mr. Tapia tried to help her keep her above the chin-deep water. Eventually, the men were able to pry her from the door, but it was too late, Mr. Jordan said. Ms. Lee was killed by the storm.
In Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, Ricardo Garcia was awakened by a surge of water that he said exploded through the door of his shared basement apartment at about 10:15 p.m. In moments, it was up to his knees, then his waist, then his chest.
Mr. Garcia, 50, banged on the door next to his, waking another roommate, Oliver De La Cruz, who was shaking on Thursday morning as he looked at the water stains that reached to the ceiling of his ruined room.
Image

Ricardo Garcia, who also lives in the Cypress Hills building’s basement, salvaged what he could from his room. Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
“I almost died inside here, I almost died, man,” said Mr. De La Cruz, 22.
Mr. De La Cruz broke down his bedroom door to escape in his boxer shorts. Mr. Garcia said that he and Mr. De La Cruz climbed to the first floor, struggling against the water pouring down the stairs.
Mr. De La Cruz found his upstairs neighbor, Roxanna Florentino, who has lived in the building for 18 years. She said she heard another man, 66-year-old Roberto Bravo, crying out for help from a back bedroom in the basement apartment.
Image

Roberto BravoCredit...via Pablo Bravo
Ms. Florentino said Mr. Bravo was pleading for help in Spanish, and neighbors were trying to reach him. But water was pouring through both the front door and a window. She realized Mr. Bravo’s screaming had stopped.
On Thursday, it was clear that the water had risen so forcefully where Mr. Bravo had been that it tore off the door and broke though the ceiling, leaving dank decay. The Ecuadorean flag hanging on his wall was soaked and muddied, the floor below strewn with debris, along with a water-stained photo of Mr. Bravo in a tuxedo at a formal event.
Image

Mr. Bravo, in tuxedo, seated at the right.Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
Ms. Florentino made her first of four 911 calls at 10:15 p.m. Firefighters arrived an hour later. They brought out Mr. Bravo’s body.
She tried to sleep but each time she drifted off, she heard Mr. Bravo’s voice, calling a last time.
“It’s so hard when someone asks for help and you can’t help them,” she said.
— Jesse McKinley, Nate Schweber, Amanda Rosa and Chelsia Rose Marcius

​

This is such a tragedy, I can't even imagine being in the floor above and not being able to help.