THE NEW YORK AREA awoke to a flood-ravaged and largely paralyzed landscape on Thursday, after record-shattering rains brought by the remnants of Hurricane Ida left a trail of death and damage across several states, shut down transit and exposed anew the region’s vulnerability to a changed climate.
At least 14 people died as waters rose in basements. A tornado in southern New Jersey leveled a stretch of houses. Some drivers have reportedly been stranded since Wednesday night, more than 200,000 homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania remain without power, and states of emergency have been declared across the region, The New York Times reported.
The rain on Wednesday — more than half a foot in just a few hours — turned streets and subway platforms into rivers and sent emergency responders in boats rescuing people from the rooftops of cars and from flooded homes. Hundreds of people on trains and subways were evacuated.
The rain broke records set just 11 days before by Tropical Storm Henri, underscoring warnings from climate scientists that the storms herald a new normal on a warmed planet where hotter air holds more water and allows storms to gather strength more quickly and grow ever larger.
Though skies are clearing, more than a dozen of the city’s subway lines remain at least partly suspended, along with commuter rail service across the region. Airports were open but hundreds of flights were canceled. Rescues continued Thursday morning, and some rivers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were still rising.
In New York City, the dead ranged in age from a 2-year-old boy to an 86-year-old woman, the police said. Some drowned in basement apartments in Queens, where a system of makeshift and mostly illegally converted living spaces has sprung up.
Five people were found dead in an apartment complex in Elizabeth, N.J., city officials said Thursday. Another death occurred in Passaic
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