Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Life has been disrupted as storm Ida has brought flash floods and heavy rain to New York City. US President Joe Biden said historic investment is needed to deal with the climate crisis, as the north-east reels from flash flooding and tornadoes that have killed at least 45 people.
“US is facing climate-related destruction across the country and tackling it is a matter of life and death,” US president said.
The state has declared a flash flood emergency in New Jersey and New York. The storm has battered Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. The rare flash flood emergency raised a warning and urged the residents to move to higher grounds the remnants of the storm caused massive flooding.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said at least 23 people had died in his state – most of them stuck in their vehicles as the waters rose. At least 14 people lost their lives in New York City, including a two-year-old boy. Eleven of them drowned while trapped in their flooded basements, officials said.
Five people died in Pennsylvania, while a state trooper in Connecticut was swept away as he responded to a call. Deaths were also reported in Maryland and Virginia.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticised weather experts, saying their forecasts were being made a mockery of in a matter of minutes. He said he had been warned to expect between three and six inches (7.5 and 15cm) of rain over the course of the day. However a record 3.15 inches fell in Central Park in just one hour.
Social media is now full of videos and pictures of the devastation that the storm has caused in the region.In New Jersey, a tornado flattened the state’s largest dairy farm, ripping roofs of buildings and toppling several large silos. Many cows were trapped under fallen sheds and some died, the owners of a farm shared on social media.
In New York, some 835 people had to be rescued from stranded subway trains, police said, after social media pictures showed water gushing into the underground stations and tunnels.
Some viral footage showed cars floating down flooded roads, with cries of “help” being heard from inside. Nearly 500 vehicles were abandoned in New York, reports said.
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Passengers on trains, planes and buses have been describing finding themselves stuck for hours without moving as the flooding made travelling impossible.
Hurricane Ida was the second most damaging hurricane to strike the US state of Louisiana on record, only behind Hurricane Katrina, and is tied for the strongest landfall in the state by maximum winds with Hurricane Laura and the 1856 Last Island hurricane. Ida is also the sixth costliest hurricane on record, surpassing Ike of 2008.
