Thunderstorms caused flooding in parts of New York City and its suburbs Thursday, including many of the city’s subway stations.
Videos circulating on social media show New York City residents wading through knee-deep water at the subway station at 157th Street and water leaking from the ceiling at a station along the subway’s sixth line.
The storm caused the lower level of the station at 157th Street and Broadway to fill up with water, forcing some straphangers to walk through filthy water. Some of them crossed with the help of trash bags, others bare-legged. The road above the station was completely underwater, New York Public Radio reported.
“The concrete above ground does not absorb the water. The water comes through the vents down the stairs in those waterfalls, and then if the drains at the street level can’t handle the water, it goes over the curb and makes things even worse,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) head Sarah Feinberg told WCBS-TV.
Commuters waiting for the 2 and 5 trains at 149th Street and Grand Concourse said they saw a waterfall of floodwater pouring down the steps, the outlet reported.
“We looked on the tracks and saw water, and next thing you know there’s this ‘river’ coming from the platform and stairs,” William Ferrante told New York Public Radio. The station at 34th Street, and those as far down as Spring Street, encountered similar conditions.
“What was different about this storm was that we got pounded by rain in places that don’t typically flood,” Feinberg told The New York Times. The rain led to the suspension of the A train service from 181st Street to 207th Street, according to Feinberg.
The floods also caused traffic jams in many parts of New York and the Tri-State area that day, according to The Weather Channel. Stretches of the Bronx River Parkway and the Hutchinson River Parkway were closed and submerged in floodwater, photos from Accuweather show.
The flash flooding threat from Tropical Storm #Elsa will continue through tonight and tomorrow for portions of the Mid-Atlantic through New England. pic.twitter.com/xh8awW28HS
— National Weather Service (@NWS) July 9, 2021
Heavy downpours, accompanied by thunder and lightning, in several parts of the East Coast are to blame. Tropical Storm Elsa threatened to bring strong winds and another round of rainfall, The New York Times reported. (RELATED: First Hurricane Of Season Intensifying, May Be Heading For Florida)
As of Friday, 5 a.m., the storm is 5 miles east of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and 175 miles southwest of Montauk Point, New York, a National Hurricane Center bulletin stated.
The threat of flash floods “continues across the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States,” according to the bulletin.