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NYC prepares as end-of-week forecasts call for heavy rainfall

By

Catalina Gonella

Published Sep 28, 2023

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People walk through Brooklyn during heavy rain and high winds as the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia continue to move through the area on Sept. 25, 2023 in New York City.

 

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By

Catalina Gonella

Published Sep 28, 2023

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New Yorkers are in for a hellish Friday morning commute.

The New York metropolitan area is expected to get dumped on, with heavy rainfall starting late Thursday night and all day on Friday, according to the National Weather Service New York. A flood watch was issued for the entire city from 2 a.m. Friday morning though 6 a.m. Saturday, with rainfall rates of up to 2 inches per hour at times. Some areas could see a total of more than 5 inches of rain.

“With a chance of heavy rain tonight and tomorrow across New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley, we’re keeping a close eye on potential flash flooding,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Thursday. “I’m directing state agencies to prepare response assets and be ready to assist our partners at the local level if they need support.”

Meteorologist Bill Goodman with the National Weather Service said it’s still too early to tell which areas will be hardest hit.

“These types of rain bands, getting their exact location down can be very, very, very difficult,” Goodman said. “We have to look at the whole metro area as having the potential for having some very heavy rain tomorrow.”

Coastal areas are at the highest risk, however, especially because the tide has been running high, Goodman said.

Head of the MTA Janno Lieber said the agency is deploying all protocols to try to keep the system running as smoothly as possible — a multimillion dollar effort — but there could be interruptions to service.

“This is a serious storm and we are taking it very seriously,” Lieber said at a press conference on Thursday. “We have a detailed plan in place to protect our network and to deliver safe service throughout the storm. We will be running. There may be impacts to service but our plan is to run service everywhere the MTA operates.”

Lieber said crews are standing by with equipment to manage weather effects in case of flash flooding. He added that the MTA’s bus network is ready to pick up the slack from trains being down in the case stations shut down due to flooding. Some bridges could also be affected depending on wind and rain conditions.

The rain isn’t expected to let up until Saturday. Then, a light at the end of the tunnel. Early next week is expected to be dry and sunny.

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Catalina Gonella

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