It’s been one hell of a rough week for Brooklyn.
The borough was knee-deep in despair Tuesday after powerful thunderstorms brought flash floods to city streets and sidewalks. Videos posted to social media show cars partially submerged, and fearless pedestrians trudging through knee-deep water as bags of garbage and other debris float by. The flooding impacted Williamsburg, Gowanus, and Crown Heights and came on the heels of widespread power outages that started amid a heatwave Sunday night.
“As frustrating as this situation is (and as a commuter I share in that frustration), let’s be good to one another amid the transit hell,” tweeted Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams as storms battered the city.
Rain and high winds hit the New York City area Monday night, dumping heavy rain through Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning that included Brooklyn, Queens and parts of New Jersey. Scattered power outages were reported across New York City.
Video taken on Carroll Street in Brooklyn showed murky water churning at an intersection as orange traffic barriers bob in the current. Another video, shot at 4th Avenue and Carroll Street, showed water lapping at the doors of partially submerged parked cars. @NYScanner shared video of a woman holding an umbrella, sloshing through the floodwaters in Williamsburg. “Watch this brave New Yorker walk (swim) across a flooded street in #Williamsburg #Brooklyn,” the caption read. Over in Queens, a woman was filmed using a traffic cone to scrape gunk loose from a sewer gate on Francis Lewis Boulevard, in an apparent effort to alleviate flooding there.
At 4th Ave and Carroll Street in Brooklyn. Courtesy of Adrienne Zhao pic.twitter.com/wEU4RFwqfQ
— Julie Chang (@BayAreaJulie) July 22, 2019
Carroll Street in Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/5E4ytiEBmy
— NYC Scanner (@NYScanner) July 23, 2019
Watch this brave New Yorker walk (swim) across a flooded street in #Williamsburg #Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/mwRHd32fyg
— NYC Scanner (@NYScanner) July 22, 2019
Oof. Photo cred: Adrienne Zhao pic.twitter.com/r4QtClpgTh
— Julie Chang (@BayAreaJulie) July 22, 2019
Brooklyn intersections hit hardest by floods included Brooklyn Avenue and Park Place, Wallabout Street and Throop Avenue, and Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street, according to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.
Queens saw flooding around the Long Island Expressway and Francis Lewis Boulevard, the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and Metropolitan Avenue, and the Clearview Expressway at Northern Boulevard, Johnson said.
Staten Island saw flooding in Westerleight.
Rain was expected Tuesday night, but things were looking clear in New York City for the rest of the week, with sun, clouds and temperatures in the 80s for the rest of the week.
