New York City has been no stranger to unpredictable weather in recent times, but the financial capital may be reaching its limit. As flash floods set the city in a state of emergency on Friday, New Yorkers had to navigate through a nautical disaster. Over seven inches of rain poured onto streets that lacked proper drainage systems; halfway submerging cars and buses, engulfing basement apartments, bursting into subway stations and overall terrorizing people, their commutes and their property. Rainwater overflowed into city sewers to a point that sewer water was getting pushed into the street, along with rats and landfill-turning the island into an infested swamp. City boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, got hit the hardest with rain falling as heavy as 2.5 inches an hour in areas. Subway schedules were completely derailed as water tore through the underground system that most working class residents use for everyday travel. This is the same system that more recently hiked up fare prices and now hosts robo-cops patrolling stations.
Overall the flash flood in New York City-and surrounding areas-was a complete mess that affected working class and low income residents the most. A pattern that I’ve increasingly noticed is that when situations out of the public’s control emerge (and only seemingly negatively impact the working class/lower class), officials love to play the blame game instead of taking accountability for what was lacking. This instance is no different with climate change being the scapegoat for the problem.
It’s important to note that climate change is definitely a part of the issue as reports attribute this record-heavy rainfall to global warming. With temperatures rising in ecosystems, more moisture collects in the air which produces heavier concentrations of water. This is why flooding is especially a threat to places like New York City and areas around the world. Climate change has been showcased as a threat to the world for over a decade, and while the effects of it are becoming more apparent, there are still so many overlying issues the city could have dealt with to avoid this disaster. The reality is New York City has always been vulnerable to flooding, not enough has been done on an official level and the people that bear the brunt of this are the working/lower class and historically marginalized communities.
“Our climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can respond”
“This is the result of climate change,” said New York City’s Chief Climate Officer, Rohit Aggarwala in a press release Friday. “Our climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can respond.”
Instead the city’s main climate initiative focuses on decarbonizing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While this would have an overall positive impact on global climate in the future, this is an ongoing nuanced effort that requires billions in state funds to push people to remodel their homes and communities to adhere to energy efficiency and the goal isn’t projected to be reached until 2050. Are people just supposed to suffer until then?
What Aggarwala fails to note is the city’s history with inevitable rainfall issues and flooding for over a century and the desperate need to fix the 120 year old sewage systems that are meant to drain out water from the island. Instead Aggarwala stated that upgrading sewer systems would be too costly. Does Aggarwala mean to say that we just have to deal with rat/sewage lakes when it rains indefinitely because drainage systems will be too hard to repair because of climate change? Could the reason really be that the city has overlooked effective water mitigation efforts and those in the most danger for too long?
When Hurricane Ida occurred in 2021, 11 people were reported dead from drowning in floods. These people were all immigrants living in unauthorized low-income basement housing that city officials are aware of and know they pose extreme risks to flooding. Among the 11 that passed away, an 86 year old and a two year old drowned from being trapped in these apartments. Friday’s flash flood wreaked havoc again on basement apartments and while nobody has been reported dead, there was a push months ago to authorize these homes that was seemingly overlooked. In march there was a rally in Queens to raise awareness of this effort to city officials. If these apartments were authorized they would be able to receive certain features that save lives when it comes to disasters-like for instance an emergency escape.
“These are traditionally some of our most affordable homes, but people living in illegal basements do not have the tenant rights they deserve and they do not have the safe conditions that they should have,” New York City Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz said at the rally before she subsequently resigned about a couple months later.
“Plan your escape route”
When Governor Kathy Hochul issued a state of emergency over New York she stated, “Plan your escape route. Don’t wait until water is over your knees before you leave. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”
What’s pretty ironic about this statement is the fact that Hochul and mayor Eric Adams are under fire for their lack of warning ahead of time. Many public criticisms state that Adams may have even known about the possibility of a flash flood in the city well before his state of emergency was issued, giving people very limited time to “plan their escape route” especially while many New Yorkers were already on their Friday morning rush hour commutes to school, work, etc.
Hochul herself was another city official that was quick to solely blame climate change for the flash flood.
“Of course, we know this is the result of climate change,” the state governor said at a press release. “This is, unfortunately, what we have to expect as the new normal.”
People that are low income constantly facing intense floods that destroy their belongings, can entrap them in homes and possibly kill them is the expected “new normal”? Children being sent to school on half-submerged buses in rat-sewage waters is the new expected normal?
“Generally when people die, it’s because a number of things went wrong. It’s usually not random.”
Sustainability journalist Andrew Revkin hosted a panel with organizer Laura Shepard, climate researcher Harold Brooks and environmental journalist Erica Gies, to discuss flash floods and how these situations could have been avoided. Shepard, who is from Queens herself, highlighted another infrastructure issue in New York that environmentalists have tried to bring awareness to in the past.
“All around we talk about climate change all the time,” she said. “We talk about the strategies we can take to reduce emissions. We hit resistance politically, and from our neighbors and when we really felt the impacts everybody just kind of went, ‘Oh, this is climate change.’ But the local impacts really could’ve been anticipated if there had been a broader understanding of local history, ecology and hydrology in a number of places it seems.”
“The city was developed-large spots of it-over a century ago and so there’s buildings, there’s concrete, there’s so much asphalt in places that were once waterways, wetlands, and all the other surfaces that could’ve absorbed or retained water better,” Shepard added. “And in a lot of places the people who live in the most precarious areas are low income, people of color and it’s infuriating to see these consequences. Generally when people die, it’s because a number of things went wrong. It’s usually not random.”
Shepard pointed out that many of these low-income basement apartments themselves were built over waterways-basically setting themselves up for devastation. In a concrete jungle, where is water supposed to absorb?
Overall, the mess that occurred from Friday’s flash flood and similar floods in the past is definitely not just a reflection of a climate change issue. It showcases a housing issue, an infrastructure issue, a marginalization issue . To coin this as just a climate problem is inconsiderate and seems agenda-driven to me.
Going back to the blame game, this is why it’s important the public stays critical with their thinking because time and time again we are shown that many officials cater to the one percent and the one percent doesn’t take us seriously. The working and lower classes need to keep in mind their power as the majority to instill changes that will improve our own well being instead of continually getting exploited for the benefit of the ultra-rich. Look at the writer’s strike and the UAW strike, there are forces for change that work. This is because we have more power than it seems sometimes when going against titles like CEO, governor or mayor-but those are just titles. We have the numbers. We have the labor. The richest city in America should be able to adequately provide for its residents that aren’t millionaires. Instead it exponentially raises the cost of living-more than monetarily wise-for specifically the working/lower class who are the same people this city is built on the backs of. There should be a sense of common decency amongst those in charge. They should be able to look at themselves and admit when they’ve majorly messed up so they can then build good solutions-but there isn’t. This must be stopped before the Big Apple goes rotten.
