New York City area gets one of its wettest days in decades, as rain swamps subways and streets

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A rainstorm during the morning rush hour swamped the New York metropolitan area Friday, shutting down swaths of the city’s subway system, flooding streets and highways, and cutting off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (Sept. 29)

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Rain walloped the New York metropolitan area with a startling punch Friday, knocking out several subway and commuter rail lines, stranding drivers on highways, and flooding basements in one of the city’s wettest days in decades. (Sept. 29)

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In this image taken from video, a section of the FDR Drive sits submerged in flood waters, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

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A man works to clear a drain in flood waters, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

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Pedestrians walk along a flooded sidewalk, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

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Cars move along Brooklyn Bridge under heavy rain on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023 in Brooklyn borough of New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm swamped the New York metropolitan area on Friday, shutting down parts of the city’s subway system, flooding streets and highways, and delaying flights into LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

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A guardian carries a child as his partner holds the umbrellas following heavy rains on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

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In this photo taken from video, traffic makes its way through flood waters along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway , Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)

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In this photo taken from video, a man drives a scooter through flood waters, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

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A woman holds her umbrella as she speaks on the phone on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023 in Brooklyn borough of New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm swamped the New York metropolitan area on Friday, shutting down some subways and commuter railroads, flooding streets and highways, and delaying flights into LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

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In this photo taken from video, work in flood waters to clear drains on a street, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

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A commuter walking through a large puddle at the entrance of the Bowery Subway station following heavy rains in the Lower East Side, Manhattan on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

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Commuters are seen on a Hudson line train waiting to depart Grand Central Terminal, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. A number of train lines were disrupted due to heavy rains. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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An MTA employee helps commuters as train service as been disrupted due to heavy rains at Grand Central Terminal information booth, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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Vehicles including a school bus try to maneuver on a flooded street in Prospect Heights section of the Brooklyn borough of New York, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (Courtesy of Jonathan Gardner via AP)

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People wait for the bus as trains get cancelled due to flooding from heavy rains on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

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Residents watch as workers attempt to clear a drain in flood waters, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

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People talk to the train engineer as trains from Manhattan to Brooklyn get cancelled due to heavy rain on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

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People wait for the bus as trains were cancelled on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm swamped the New York metropolitan area on Friday, shutting down parts of the city’s subway system, flooding streets and highways, and delaying flights into LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

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An abandoned car sits in flood waters on the FDR highway in the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023 in New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm swamped the New York metropolitan area on Friday, shutting down some subways and commuter railroads, flooding streets and highways, and delaying flights into LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

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The FDR highway underneath the Williamsburg Bridge in the Lower East Side of Manhattan is closed on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023 in New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm swamped the New York metropolitan area on Friday, shutting down some subways and commuter railroads, flooding streets and highways, and delaying flights into LaGuardia Airport.(AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

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First responders wade through flood waters at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

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Commuters wait on the track to board an express train on the Hudson line following disruptions due to heavy rain at Grand Central Terminal, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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In this image taken from video, a car sits stranded in flood waters at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

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A man stands in the median next to his car stranded in flood waters on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York. A potent rush-hour rainstorm has swamped the New York metropolitan area. The deluge Friday shut down swaths of the subway system, flooded some streets and highways, and cut off access to at least one terminal at LaGuardia Airport. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)

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A man leaves the train station as trains from Manhattan to Brooklyn were cancelled due to heavy rain on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023 in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

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People take the bus as trains have cancelled due to flooding from heavy rains on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, JENNIFER PELTZ and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN

NEW YORK (AP) — Rain walloped the New York metropolitan area with a startling punch Friday, knocking out several subway and commuter rail lines, stranding drivers on highways, flooding basements and shuttering a terminal at LaGuardia Airport for hours in one of the city’s wettest days in decades.

More than 7.25 inches (18.41 centimeters) of rain had fallen in parts of Brooklyn by nightfall, with at least one spot seeing 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) in a single hour, according to weather and city officials. The 8.65 inches (21.97 centimeters) at John F. Kennedy Airport surpassed its record for any September day, a bar set during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.

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And more downpours were expected.

The deluge came two years after the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped record-breaking rain on the Northeast and killed at least 13 people in New York City, mostly in flooded basement apartments. Although no deaths or severe injuries have been reported so far from Friday’s storm, it stirred frightening memories.

Ida killed three of Joy Wong’s neighbors, including a toddler. And on Friday, water began lapping against the front door of her building in Woodside, Queens.

“I was so worried,” she said. It became too dangerous to leave: “Outside was like a lake, like an ocean.”

Within minutes, water filled the building’s basement nearly to the ceiling. After the family’s deaths in 2021, the basement was turned into a recreation room. It is now destroyed.

City officials said they got reports of six flooded basement apartments Friday, but all occupants got out safely.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams declared states of emergency and urged people to stay put if possible. But schools were open, students went to class and many adults went to work, only to wonder how they would get home.

Virtually every subway line was at least partly suspended, rerouted or running with delays. Metro-North commuter rail service from Manhattan was suspended for much of the day but began resuming by evening. The Long Island Rail Road was snarled, 44 of the city’s 3,500 buses got stranded and bus service was disrupted citywide, transit officials said.

“When it stops the buses, you know it’s bad,” Brooklyn high school student Malachi Clark said after trying to get home by bus, then subway. School buses were running, but they transport only a fraction of public school students, many of them disabled.

A long line of people snaked from the ticket counter in the afternoon at Grand Central Terminal, where Mike Tags was among those whose trains had been canceled. Railroad employees had suggested possible workarounds, but he wondered whether they would work out.

“So I’m going to sit here, ride it out, until they open up,” he said.

Traffic hit a standstill earlier in the day on a stretch of the FDR Drive, a major artery along Manhattan’s east side. With water above cars’ tires, some drivers abandoned their vehicles.

At around 11 a.m., Priscilla Fontallio said she had spent three hours in her car, which was on a piece of the highway that wasn’t flooded but wasn’t moving.

“Never seen anything like this in my life,” she said.

On a street in Brooklyn’s South Williamsburg neighborhood, workers were up to their knees in water as they tried to unclog a storm drain while cardboard and other debris floated by. Some people arranged milk crates and wooden boards to cross flooded sidewalks.

Flights into LaGuardia were briefly halted in the morning, and then delayed, because of water in the refueling area. Flooding also forced the closure of one of the airport’s three terminals for several hours. Terminal A resumed normal operations around 8 p.m.

A Brooklyn school was evacuated because its boiler was smoking, possibly because water got into it, Schools Chancellor David Banks said at a news briefing. Another Brooklyn school was mopping up ground-floor classrooms, City Councilwoman Crystal Hudson said in an email seeking volunteers to help.

The New York Rangers and New York Islanders postponed a preseason game on Long Island. And at the waterlogged Central Park Zoo, a sea lion swam out of her swollen pool. With the zoo closed because of the weather, she looked around for a bit before returning to the pool, zoo officials said in a statement.

In Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, Jessie Lawrence awoke to the sound of rain dripping from the ceiling of her fourth-floor apartment and heard strange sounds outside her front door.

She opened it to find “the water was coming in thicker and louder,” pouring into the hallway and flowing down the stairs, she said. Rain had pooled on the roof and was leaking through a skylight.

Hoboken, New Jersey, and other cities and towns around New York City also experienced flooding. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called for state offices to close at 3 p.m., except for essential personnel.

Why so much rain? The remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia over the Atlantic Ocean combined with a mid-latitude system arriving from the west, at a time of year when conditions coming off the ocean are particularly juicy for storms, National Weather Service meteorologist Ross Dickman said. And this combination storm parked itself over New York for 12 hours.

The weather service had warned of 3 to 5 inches (7.5 to 13 centimeters) of rain and told emergency managers to expect over 6 inches (15 centimeters) in some places, Dickman said.

The deluge came less than three months after a storm caused deadly floods in New York’s Hudson Valley and swamped Vermont’s capital, Montpelier.

As the planet warms, storms are forming in a hotter atmosphere that can hold more moisture, making extreme rainfall more frequent, according to atmospheric scientists.

But in the case of Friday’s storm, nearby ocean temperatures were below normal, and air temperatures weren’t too hot. Still, it became the third time in two years that rain fell at rates near 2 inches (5 centimeters) an hour in Central Park, which is unusual, Columbia University climate scientist Adam Sobel said.

The park recorded 5.8 inches (14.73 centimeters) of rain by nightfall Friday.

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Associated Press journalists Deepti Hajela, Joe Frederick and Karen Matthews in New York, Anthony Izaguirre in Albany and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed.

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For more AP coverage of climate change: https://apnews.com/climate-and-environment

BOBBY CAINA CALVAN

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