Torrential rains that passed overnight from Thursday to Friday in the northeast of the United States flooded the streets of New York and partially paralyzed the work of the subway and local airports, forcing the American authorities to call on the population to be careful, reports AFP, reports Agerpres.

Flooding in New York due to rainsPhoto: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/Profimedia

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a “state of emergency” in New York, Long Island and the eastern part of the American metropolis, as well as in the Hudson River Valley due to the “extreme precipitation that we are seeing,” she said on the X social network.

Images obtained by AFP journalists, local media companies and social media users showed vehicles struggling to move through flooded or even completely blocked streets due to water reaching car windows.

Several stations of the giant subway network of the American city were partially flooded, and several central lines were closed in Brooklyn. “We continue to evacuate water from the tracks caused by the flooding of several stations in Brooklyn and Manhattan,” the New York subway company said on its social network X account.

La Guardia Airport announced for its part that all access routes to Terminal A are “currently closed”.

Politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic representative in Congress, announced in an email to her staff that boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn received between 50 and 120 liters of rain per square meter, while other rains included between 25 and 25 to The same areas are expected 70 liters per square meter.

According to the US Weather Service, the weather is caused by a low-lying area along the Mid-Atlantic region that draws in moist air from across the ocean, “creating areas of heavy rain over the northern and eastern regions of the country.” .

The authorities of New York City take these floods very seriously, where in September 2021 Hurricane Ida caused the death of 13 people (and several dozen more in the surrounding regions), most of the victims were trapped in the basements of buildings converted into apartments. in a city hit by a serious housing crisis.