In response to the situation, New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency encompassing New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley. Mayor Eric Adams also issued a separate state of emergency declaration for New York City.
Flash flood warnings are in effect for various parts of the region, including Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and New Jersey, due to the occurrence or imminent threat of flash flooding.
Within a single hour, Brooklyn Navy Yard reported over 2.5 inches of rainfall. During a virtual briefing, Rohit Aggarwala, New York's chief climate officer, highlighted that the city's sewage system was originally designed to handle a maximum of 1.75 inches of rainfall per hour.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) recommended that individuals stay at home unless they had essential travel plans. Additionally, the New York Police Department announced several road closures and revealed that the National Guard had been deployed.
Due to flooding, Terminal A at La Guardia Airport is presently closed, and authorities are advising passengers to check with their respective airlines before heading to the airport.
In the New York subway — one of the world's largest systems with 420 stations and more than 30 lines — water poured down the steps and through the ceilings of some stations. The subway is essential to the lives of millions of city residents in the most populous US city, but a number of lines, including in Brooklyn, were shut down because of the flooding.
The National Weather Service warned of flooding through late Friday with as much as two inches (5.1 centimeters) of rain