Hurricane Ida has devastated 6 states in the US north-east. The flash-flooding and tornadoes have killed dozens of people and the final death toll isn’t clear yet. The BBC reports at least 45 people dead, CNN reports at least 46, while The New York Times places the toll at 43. The NYT states that many of those who lost their lives were killed in basement apartments in a storm that was caused by the remnants of a hurricane that struck New Orleans earlier.
To understand just how serious the situation is, the National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Emergency for NYC. For the very first time in history. It’s yet another piece of proof that climate change is very real and that its effects are horrendous. US President Joe Biden said that “historic investment” is needed to deal with the current climate crisis, which is “a matter of life and death.”
Photos from NYC show the apocalyptic flooding that the city’s inhabitants are having to deal with. And it is as terrifying as it is heartbreaking.
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You're a massive asshole if you call for delivery during something like that. Eat the ramen you have in the back of your cabinet.
"Get a basement apartment in New York they said. It'll be fun they said"
If this was a book cover, it would be a best cellar.. Or maybe not.
New York City and New Jersey saw unprecedented levels of rainfall and caused residents to become trapped in flooded basements and cars. The BBC reports that 23 people died in New Jersey, 14 in New York, 5 in Pennsylvania, 1 each in Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia.
Thousands of people were left without power. However, transit in NYC is slowly returning to normal after the flooding on Friday.
"Flooding wasn’t the only problem last night as fires broke out on the track and people had to walk through tunnels while abandoning subway cars"
"Current flooding situation in NYC. NYC recording their highest level of rainfall since 1800"
Bill de Blasio, New York City’s mayor, said that the devastation was “the biggest wake-up call we could possibly get,” referring to climate change.
"We are in a new world now, let's be blunt," de Blasio said. He added that the US will have to do a lot of things “differently” and “quickly,” as the frequency and intensity of storms rise in the country.
According to CNN, over 20 million people remain under flood warnings. Some rivers in the US north-east are likely to remain flooded into Friday and even the weekend.
Storm Ida made landfall on Sunday, August 29, as a Category 4 hurricane. Though it reduced in intensity as it approached the north-east of the country, it nonetheless wreaked havoc.
“I want to know who knew what when and what could have been done differently—because New Yorkers deserve to know what we're doing to learn from this event and make sure that it doesn't happen again,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul told CNN, advocating for moving toward carbon-neutral energy.
“We have no choice, my friends, the future we spoke about in dire terms, that future is now. It's happening, we're losing lives we're losing property and we cannot continue on this path,” Hochul said.
Joseph Georgiadis - I don't think you appreciate just how dangerous floodwaters can be. The driver could have just abandoned those passengers on the wrong side of the flooding but he did his best to get them to their homes etc. It's not huge heroism but what else do you call putting yourself at risk for the benefit of strangers?
"Lefrak buildings in Queens NY flooded from the storm.
We had to take a dog and a cat out the apartment but they are safe."
"I am still in disbelief!!!! I am totally exhausted with this clean up!"
"NYC September 2nd 2021"
For some reason, I read this as "Cats are floating..." until I saw a lack of cats.
Almost all of Manhattan's electric main is underground, in tunnels. Water plus electricity makes pretty sparks!
You can see the bottom of the door just gives away and all that water comes flooding in.
Note: this post originally had 34 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Hey there fossil fuel burning nation, how’s about you vote for long term environmental policies instead of only looking until the next change of President? How about you push your senators to drop their funding from oil, gas and big business partners? Perhaps look further than your own economic wealth and invest in businesses that promote a system that will benefit the world as a whole? I have a huge amount of sympathy for the individuals who have had their lives wrecked but it’s time the whole nation took responsibility for a better approach to its impact on the global environment.
A nation that has repeatedly pulled out of climate conferences and agreements, has stalled progress and has consistently allowed big business to decide the direction of policy has a lot to answer for. It’s at times like this that we have to highlight the causes and the failures of government. Simply having sympathy for victims is to ignore the reality of the damage being done. I’m off now to go f**k myself. May your god/s go with you, you need them.
Oh WOW! Are we witnessing this imaginary friend of theirs extinguishing the height of their hubris in real time? Now THAT is just... Wow. This god I might actually want to hear about. Either that or I've been binging a little too much Vikings.
We have many eco-enviro-types here, but change is difficult when people don't WANT to give up the easy way they already know.
Unpopular opinion alert. I don't think this is a good time to criticise politics. How about you show some compassion for what these people are going through.....
It is NOW the time. When all is dry, they will forget.
That's why it's an unpopular opinion. Sticking your head in the sand because you're uncomfortable about reality doesn't help anyone
@Frankenfrog With the possible exception of the people shorting stock.
Thoughts and Prayers collection is by email nowadays, I presume? Maybe I could script something to send them every so often, so we care even MORE. No, Daria, this is a test of the species. Quite literally, sink or swim.
The current argument against doing anything is that China is way worse than us so why should we bother doing anything? Sad. Very sad.
The party who denies climate change already only receives a minority of our total votes, and not just at the presidential level. I suppose it’s easier to blame the victim, nay “the whole nation,” than to acknowledge that, eh?
oh ya u also gotta keep in mind out current president is a moron and his vp is worse. ppl like me who stay out of politics stay out for a reason. also our votes dont mean anything anymore only ppl in power matter so dont get political on here. theres literally nothing we can do that would make an actual impact. the us is screwed anyways our president made sure of that
honestly it doesnt seem like u have sympathy bc ur complaining about politics. i wrote my experience in my own comment mayb u should read it and see just how bad some of us had it. im sure if someone u loved was outside during the storm for 4 hours desprately trying to save where u live ud think differently
Ms. Goodman, that is how the rest of us have felt for DECADES, only the "where u live" in our case, is THIS PLANET. How on EARTH there can still be people this blind after Greta stood up at the U.N. just breaks me.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
How about you shut the f**k up and stop blaming us? You act like we didn't even TRY to fight against trump, as if biden didn't win the election. And now you use this horrible event to continue to spread hate towards people who are already struggling? Go f**k yourself. What about the children hurt? What about people not being allowed to vote due to voter suppression? But noo, according to you EVERYTHING IS OUR FAULT. And it's totally okay to blame and ridicule americans during tragic and dangerous events because we're american. You people seem to think that changing the way the government works is easy. It's not, so get off your high horse.
I hear you. I'm European and we also suck at changing our lives for tye better of the environment. Problem is that we mostly see idiots like Trump, GOP''s, climate deniers on our TV because it makes "better tv". I hope your politicians will start to realize that climate change is a fact.
Can we also talk about getting the tornado warnings that told us to seek shelter in the basement while simultaneously getting flash flood warnings telling us to get to higher ground?
Ah yeah, that's an interesting dilemma, to say the least!!
Oh dang what to even do then?!? I would get to higher ground I think
This comment has been deleted.
That's when human solidarity should come to play and those on higher ground could shelter the less fortunate for a couple of days if needed. Probably happened in smaller towns.
This was the worst rainfall in NYC history, worse than Sandy though with lower winds. Our infrastructure is designed to handle normal loads, but we got more rain in 12 hours than any entire month of September on record. We are in the middle of a $12 billion upgrade to the subways to ensure better handling of water, only 2 years left on a 10 year project to finish. Also we are redoing over 30 neighborhoods for flood issues. My area was finished 2 years ago, and over 50 other neighborhoods have been finished. We know 4 of the 5 boroughs are on Islands, most of NYC is former swamp land, and we are at high risk of flooding. That is why we have spent billions since Sandy on fixing the problem.
It looks like you might have to redefine "normal" as climate change gets worse.
Hey there fossil fuel burning nation, how’s about you vote for long term environmental policies instead of only looking until the next change of President? How about you push your senators to drop their funding from oil, gas and big business partners? Perhaps look further than your own economic wealth and invest in businesses that promote a system that will benefit the world as a whole? I have a huge amount of sympathy for the individuals who have had their lives wrecked but it’s time the whole nation took responsibility for a better approach to its impact on the global environment.
A nation that has repeatedly pulled out of climate conferences and agreements, has stalled progress and has consistently allowed big business to decide the direction of policy has a lot to answer for. It’s at times like this that we have to highlight the causes and the failures of government. Simply having sympathy for victims is to ignore the reality of the damage being done. I’m off now to go f**k myself. May your god/s go with you, you need them.
Oh WOW! Are we witnessing this imaginary friend of theirs extinguishing the height of their hubris in real time? Now THAT is just... Wow. This god I might actually want to hear about. Either that or I've been binging a little too much Vikings.
We have many eco-enviro-types here, but change is difficult when people don't WANT to give up the easy way they already know.
Unpopular opinion alert. I don't think this is a good time to criticise politics. How about you show some compassion for what these people are going through.....
It is NOW the time. When all is dry, they will forget.
That's why it's an unpopular opinion. Sticking your head in the sand because you're uncomfortable about reality doesn't help anyone
@Frankenfrog With the possible exception of the people shorting stock.
Thoughts and Prayers collection is by email nowadays, I presume? Maybe I could script something to send them every so often, so we care even MORE. No, Daria, this is a test of the species. Quite literally, sink or swim.
The current argument against doing anything is that China is way worse than us so why should we bother doing anything? Sad. Very sad.
The party who denies climate change already only receives a minority of our total votes, and not just at the presidential level. I suppose it’s easier to blame the victim, nay “the whole nation,” than to acknowledge that, eh?
oh ya u also gotta keep in mind out current president is a moron and his vp is worse. ppl like me who stay out of politics stay out for a reason. also our votes dont mean anything anymore only ppl in power matter so dont get political on here. theres literally nothing we can do that would make an actual impact. the us is screwed anyways our president made sure of that
honestly it doesnt seem like u have sympathy bc ur complaining about politics. i wrote my experience in my own comment mayb u should read it and see just how bad some of us had it. im sure if someone u loved was outside during the storm for 4 hours desprately trying to save where u live ud think differently
Ms. Goodman, that is how the rest of us have felt for DECADES, only the "where u live" in our case, is THIS PLANET. How on EARTH there can still be people this blind after Greta stood up at the U.N. just breaks me.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
How about you shut the f**k up and stop blaming us? You act like we didn't even TRY to fight against trump, as if biden didn't win the election. And now you use this horrible event to continue to spread hate towards people who are already struggling? Go f**k yourself. What about the children hurt? What about people not being allowed to vote due to voter suppression? But noo, according to you EVERYTHING IS OUR FAULT. And it's totally okay to blame and ridicule americans during tragic and dangerous events because we're american. You people seem to think that changing the way the government works is easy. It's not, so get off your high horse.
I hear you. I'm European and we also suck at changing our lives for tye better of the environment. Problem is that we mostly see idiots like Trump, GOP''s, climate deniers on our TV because it makes "better tv". I hope your politicians will start to realize that climate change is a fact.
Can we also talk about getting the tornado warnings that told us to seek shelter in the basement while simultaneously getting flash flood warnings telling us to get to higher ground?
Ah yeah, that's an interesting dilemma, to say the least!!
Oh dang what to even do then?!? I would get to higher ground I think
This comment has been deleted.
That's when human solidarity should come to play and those on higher ground could shelter the less fortunate for a couple of days if needed. Probably happened in smaller towns.
This was the worst rainfall in NYC history, worse than Sandy though with lower winds. Our infrastructure is designed to handle normal loads, but we got more rain in 12 hours than any entire month of September on record. We are in the middle of a $12 billion upgrade to the subways to ensure better handling of water, only 2 years left on a 10 year project to finish. Also we are redoing over 30 neighborhoods for flood issues. My area was finished 2 years ago, and over 50 other neighborhoods have been finished. We know 4 of the 5 boroughs are on Islands, most of NYC is former swamp land, and we are at high risk of flooding. That is why we have spent billions since Sandy on fixing the problem.
It looks like you might have to redefine "normal" as climate change gets worse.