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NYC overnight downpours flood streets, impact traffic

NEW YORK (PIX11) — The heavy downpours in New York Monday night left drivers and commuters in the city a tough morning to navigate through.

Pools of water flooded the Long Island Expressway, with stand-still traffic making the drive into Queens from Midtown Manhattan a mess. Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn saw water on the roadways.

Earlier this month, Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection marked the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ida by announcing stormwater infrastructure initiatives aimed at making the city more resilient to extreme rainfall in the future. The announcement took place in South Ozone Park, where the city recently completed the construction of 2,300 new curbside rain gardens. That work may have helped keep the conditions on the streets decent now.

In Ida, more than 40 people died across New York City and New Jersey one year ago. Just in Queens, the record-shattering rainfall resulted in the death of eight residents. Roadways turned into rivers and many homes and businesses were destroyed by overflooded basements.

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