Flash floods swamp New York City subway station as horrified commuters watch on
Footage taken by an eyewitness onboard a carriage on Monday (14 July) shows torrents of water rushing into the platform at 28th Street Station as horrified onlookers watched on.
A later clip shows the water entering a subway carriage, as passengers pull their legs up off the floor.
A flash flood warning was issued for all five boroughs of New York City, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency due to flash flooding and 'high levels of rainfall' in parts of the state.
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The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
How climate crisis makes rainstorms that flooded New York more common
Monday night's downpour was one of the most intense rainstorms in New York City history, the kind of storm that's now happening much more often due to climate warming. More than 2in of rain fell in New York City's Central Park in the 7pm hour on Monday evening, part of a regional downpour that filled the city's highways and subway tunnels and prompted several water rescues. Rains were even more intense elsewhere in the region. More than 2in of rain fell in just 30 minutes in Brewster, New York, in the Hudson Valley. In Union County, New Jersey, more than 6in of rain fell in little more than an hour and at least two people died as the vehicle they were traveling in was washed off the road. Phil Murphy, the New Jersey governor, declared a state of emergency due to the heavy rainfall and advised people to avoid unnecessary travel. 'Jersey is FLOODING. I've never ever seen the highways flood. This is crazy. The climate crisis is literally outside right now,' wrote one person from New Jersey on social media. The rains came as the result of what the National Weather Service called a 'quickly evolving scenario' as a slow-moving cold front began interacting with extremely moisture-laden air drawn westward from the warmer-than-normal Atlantic Ocean. The NWS had given the hardest-hit regions, including New York City, advanced notice with numerous flood warnings. Intense periods of rain like the one on Monday have been causing increasing problems throughout the region as the climate changes. NYC now endures one extra day of heavy rain each year, on average, compared with the late 19th century. A widely shared video appeared to show floodwaters erupting from the sewer system like a geyser at the 28th Street station in midtown Manhattan, pouring into a stalled subway car filled with people. 'What happened last night is something that is a reality for our system,' said Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in an interview with a New York City television station. 'The storm water system gets backed up and gets overwhelmed and tunnels into the stations.' While the city's subway systems are designed to drain a maximum of 1.75in of rainwater per hour, the 2.07in of rain was the sixth-highest hourly total since New York City weather records began in 1869 and the most intense rainstorm since the remnants of Hurricane Ida in September 2021. Ida caused 14 deaths in the north-east, most of whom died in flooded basement apartments. A rainstorm exceeding the subway design limit had never been recorded before 1991 but has happened six times since then, including Monday's rains. A study published last year showed rainstorms like the one during Ida are now between four and 52 times more likely due to the climate crisis. A separate study in 2021 found a similar result and also found that rainstorms in the north-east region are the fastest increasing in the nation. Over the past three years, Eric Adams, the New York City mayor, has allocated more than $1bn to stormwater improvements in the city. Still, that amount is far lower than what experts say is needed to update the city's ageing infrastructure for the current climate reality, not even what is expected in the future. 'We have an infrastructure that was designed for an environment we no longer live in,' Rohit Aggarwala, New York City's chief climate officer, told the New York Times. In addition to the rising impact of freshwater floods, the region also has to deal with a simultaneously increasing threat from the expanding Atlantic Ocean. The city's flood resiliency plan anticipates it will need $46bn to protect against a one-in-100-year storm. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion The flooding in New Jersey comes as the state is contemplating sweeping changes to expand its flood zones and require new properties to be elevated if they are built in areas likely to flood at least once in the next 100 years. Research published this month shows wintertime storms in the north-east are also getting more destructive as sea levels rise and the receding Arctic sea ice helps morph weather patterns into more exaggerated and powerful iterations. The most destructive recent example of this kind of storm was Superstorm Sandy, a hybrid nor'easter and hurricane that filled New York City's subway tunnels with saltwater and caused $19bn of damage in the city. As climate warming continues, it's likely that flooding is going to keep getting worse. Rainfall intensity in the north-east could increase by a further 52% by the end of the century, according to a recent study. The heavy rains in north-east US come as several other parts of the country, including central Texas, endure one of the most intense flood seasons in recent memory. According to statistics compiled by meteorologist Michael Lowry, the NWS has issued more flood warnings this year than in any other year since that type of warning began in 1986. On Monday alone, 96 flood warnings were issued – the most for any July day on record. Eric Holthaus is a meteorologist and climate journalist based in Minnesota
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
How an outburst flood could wash out vulnerable American communities
As the US continues to deal with a summer full of devastating flash floods, scientists warn that something even worse could soon wash out vulnerable American communities. Flooded subway tunnels in New York City and deadly overflowing rivers in the Texas Hill Country were powerful examples of how destructive water can quickly become during extreme weather events. But scientists say an 'outburst flood' could deliver more destruction than 90 of the most powerful nuclear bombs in history. Officially known as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), they're becoming increasingly common due to climate change , and millions of people, including thousands in the US, are in harm's way. GLOFs are not new, but the scale and frequency are rising fast. At the end of the last Ice Age, roughly 15,000 years ago, the Missoula Floods swept across the American Northwest, triggered by massive glacial lakes bursting through ice dams. This catastrophic event all started with a remote glacial lake quietly growing in size, swelling more than twelvefold as melting ice relentlessly fed it. However, after several decades, the water became too much. With immense pressure building behind a ridge, the lake exploded, unleashing a wall of water up to 60ft that roared down a valley, obliterating everything in its path. Each of the 400 individual floods during this event unleashed the energy of 4,500 megatons of TNT, nearly 100 times the force of the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, Soviet Russia's 'Tsar Bomba.' Water roared at speeds of 65 miles per hour, carrying boulders the size of cars, reshaping the landscape and carving vast canyons that are still visible today. In 2023, India's Sikkim region suffered the deadliest GLOF in recent memory, when a glacial lake burst following years of steady melt, killing dozens and leaving hundreds homeless. Now, attention is turning to the US, where three states - Alaska, Washington and Wyoming - are facing growing threats. One Alaskan lake, ominously named [Death] Basin, has burst two years in a row, releasing a staggering 14.6billion gallons of water in each event. That's the equivalent of 22,000 Olympic swimming pools flooding downtown Juneau, turning streets into rivers and forcing residents to flee with pets in carriers. Floods beneath the basin have been recorded since 2011, but researchers are now alarmed at the rapid acceleration. A recent study found 106 out of 120 glacier-dammed lakes in Alaska have drained at least once since 1985, and new lakes are forming as the glaciers retreat. 'The danger is growing,' scientists warned. 'As ice-free basins fill with water, they eventually reach a breaking point. 'Pressure builds until the glacier can't hold, and the result is a sudden, violent flood downstream.' These floods, they say, are often unpredictable and have already caused significant loss of life and infrastructure worldwide. Washington State was once the site of the legendary Missoula Floods, and experts say history could repeat itself. All 47 glaciers currently monitored in the state are retreating, creating new lakes in unstable terrain. Back in 1947, a combination of rain and glacial melt triggered a GLOF from the Kautz Glacier, sending 1.4 billion tons of mud and debris surging six miles and carving a canyon 300 feet deep. Now, the northeastern region of the state is considered a GLOF hotspot, and scientists have called for more urgent monitoring. In 2025, a panel of glaciologists urged the installation of seismic sensors and real-time weather stations to detect potential bursts before they happen. Despite advances in modeling and hazard mapping, the team wrote in the science journal called Nature, 'These events continue to cause large-scale destruction due to weak policy enforcement, inadequate warning systems and poor community preparedness.' While not as high-risk as Alaska, Wyoming's Wind River Range and Absaroka Mountains have experienced multiple GLOFs, and the state remains on alert. In 2003, the Grasshopper Glacier released 3.2 million cubic meters of water, damaging nearby infrastructure. A study using NASA Landsat satellite data found 13 separate GLOFs between 1994 and 2007, and local records have identified at least 15 total outbursts around Mammoth Glacier alone. That's the highest concentration of GLOFs documented in the Rockies since the Ice Age-era Missoula Floods. 'Glacial retreat is exposing new terrain where meltwater can accumulate,' scientists wrote. 'Eventually, these lakes become unstable, and when they go, they go fast.'
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The sleeping giant set to wipe out thousands of Americans... with power of NINETY nuclear bombs
As the US continues to deal with a summer full of devastating flash floods, scientists warn that something even worse could soon wash out vulnerable American communities. Flooded subway tunnels in New York City and deadly overflowing rivers in the Texas Hill Country were powerful examples of how destructive water can quickly become during extreme weather events.
