Two dead after flash flooding in New Jersey and New York City
As of Tuesday morning, several main roads in New Jersey were closed because of the floods, while both New York City and New Jersey experienced subway delays. New Jersey saw more than 6in (15 cm) of rain in a matter of hours on Tuesday evening, leading to flight delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport. In Scotch Plains, New Jersey, people had to be rescued, including one instance in which responders had to use a rope to pull a man out of his car to escape the floodwaters, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News. Flood waters also rushed through subway stations in New York City on Monday evening, pouring into subway cars and forcing passengers to kneel on their seats to avoid getting wet.
New York City saw its second-ever highest hourly rainfall in over 80 years - 2in of rainfall in just 30 minutes. The flooding hit parts of Virginia as well, with two cities, Colonial Heights and Petersburg, at risk of "catastrophic" damage from floods, according to the NWS.The heaviest rainfall is now moving to the east and weakening in intensity, the NWS in New York said, encouraging people to heed road closures. The rain comes two weeks after extreme flash floods killed over 130 people in south central Texas, with many people still declared missing.
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The Guardian
3 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
BBC News
7 hours ago
- BBC News
Emergency training exercise being staged at Hull KR's Craven Park
People should not be alarmed by the presence of a large number of emergency service vehicles and crews around Craven Park stadium in Hull, fire crews have Fire and Rescue, along with police and ambulance crews, are taking part in a training exercise at the home of Hull Kingston Rovers to simulate a multi-agency response to an emergency exercise will include a mass decontamination unit, which is designed to decontaminate a large number of people exposed to hazardous materials, the fire service venue, which will host Coldplay for two nights in August as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour, would provide a "realistic and controlled environment" for the exercise, a spokesperson added. "Members of the public may notice a significant presence of emergency vehicles in the area throughout the day," the spokesperson said."We want to reassure everyone that this is not a real emergency, but a vital part of our ongoing commitment to community safety and emergency preparedness."We appreciate the public's understanding and support as we carry out this essential training."Due to the hosepipe ban, the fire service said the exercise would be conducted without running water. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
The Independent
9 hours ago
- The Independent
Here's how climate change is making floods more dangerous across the country
The country has been rocked by severe flooding in recent weeks — and climate change is making it even more dangerous, according to a report. This week, torrential rain slammed New York and New Jersey, leaving two dead. Last week, heavy rain from Tropical Storm Chantal ravaged North Carolina, displacing 60 and killing at least six. The search in Texas for more than 100 missing continues after what officials called a 'once-in-century flood' struck the state, claiming at least 134 lives. The latter two events are considered '1,000-year floods,' meaning there's a 0.1 percent likelihood they will occur in any given year, according to AccuWeather. Climate change is likely the reason that such intense floods are occurring at an exponential rate, NPR first reported. For one, climate change is intensifying rainfall. The heaviest rainstorms in Texas now dump about 20 percent more water than in the 1950s, according to the National Climate Assessment. Similarly, as videos captured New York City's subway gushing with water, Rohit Aggarwala, the city's climate chief, told the New York Times. 'It is now the case that five of the most intense rainstorms in New York City's history have taken place in the last four years,' That's largely because warmer atmospheres allow for more water vapor, leading to an uptick in 'precipitation extremes,' the assessment found. As the atmosphere continues to warm, extreme weather events become even more likely. Warmer atmospheric temperatures could also drive an increase in short-duration extreme rainfall, according to the assessment. In Texas, the Guadalupe River surged from 8 feet to 29 feet in a matter of hours due to the amount of rainfall. Although it's too soon to tell how much of a role climate change played in this month's deadly floods, an initial analysis by ClimaMeter scientists revealed that natural variability could not have alone been responsible for the magnitude of the heavy rainfall that led to the Texas floods. Some states rely on rainfall reports that are 50 years old, NPR reported in 2022. Given the warming atmosphere, those numbers are often quite outdated, affecting cities' abilities to prepare for disasters. Before the 1960s in Harris County, Texas, about 13 inches of rain dropped during extreme storms; that number was at 18 inches in 2018, NPR reported. The difference means one-third of the major roads and highways in Harris County are now vulnerable to flooding, according to the outlet. Asked at a press conference about the delayed alerts in Texas just before floods struck, after it was too late to evacuate for many, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blamed 'ancient' technology. 'When President Trump took office… he said he wanted to fix [that], and is currently upgrading the technology,' Noem said. 'And the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA, that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years, and that is the reforms that are ongoing.' NOAA has said it is updating its systems to account for climate change. Physical systems are also not prepared for these extreme weather disasters. For example, New York City's sewer system, which is over 100 years old and also handles storm water runoff, can handle about 1.75 inches of rain per hour. 'The pipes were designed for a certain amount of water. A lot more water fell from the sky,' Aggarwala told the Times of the flooding this week. Floods are not only extremely dangerous but they're also costly. Flooding from 1988 through 2021 caused $230 billion in damages — 37 percent of which was attributable to climate change, according to a 2024 National Centers for Environmental Information report.
