Man trapped in flooded basement dies as New York hit by severe rain | New York

A man’s body was pulled from a flooded New York City basement during a rainstorm that closed roads and caused airport delays on Thursday, authorities said.

Firefighters responded to a report of a person trapped in a flooded basement in Brooklyn and a scuba diving team recovered the body of a 39-year-old man around 4:30 p.m., police said. It was announced that the man, whose name was not disclosed, died in the hospital where he was taken.

Record rainfall was seen in some parts of the city. The National Weather Service said preliminary reports showed 1.8 inches (4.57 cm) of rain fell in Central Park on Thursday, which would exceed the record of 1.64 inches (4.17 cm) set for the park in 1917.

LaGuardia Airport recorded 1.97 inches (5 cm) of rain; this would break the 1955 record of 1.18 inches (3 cm) for that airport.

New York saw precipitation of varying intensity for hours leading up to the evening commute on Thursday. In the photos and videos on social media, it was seen that the water rose up to the bumpers of the vehicles and poured into the metro stations.

“When you look at the amount of water coming down, our sewer systems were not built to handle it. It was raining constantly from start to finish,” Mayor Eric Adams told radio station 1010 WINS.

The dangers that flash floods can pose to residents of the city’s thousands of basement apartments came into sharp relief in 2021, as heavy rains killed 11 people in such residences.