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Threat of Flooding Remains After Henri Drops Historic Rainfall On NYC
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Aug 23, 2021
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By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Aug 23, 2021
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Nearly 36 hours after Henri dumped historic rainfall on New York City, washing out Mayor Bill de Blasio's homecoming concert and flooding much of the region, the slow-moving storm threatens to soak the metropolitan area once again.
Now a tropical depression, Henri remained nearly stalled above Orange County as of Monday morning, drifting east at about 1 mile per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
As it inches back toward the coast throughout the rest of the morning and afternoon, Henri will continue to send bands of showers and possible thunderstorms spiraling toward the city, with the potential for flash floods and up to 4 inches of additional rainfall.
"The threats going to be there pretty much for the rest of the day, then the showers will be shifting east," said John Cristantello, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Henri made landfall in Rhode Island shortly after midnight on Sunday morning, knocking out power to 140,000 homes and swamping roadways and bridges across much of the northeast.
In Central Park, 1.94 inches of rain were recorded between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Saturday — an all-time high since tracking began in the 19th century. Much of Brooklyn received more than 8 inches of rain over a 48 period, with devastating effects for much of the borough.
The storm also forced the MTA to suspend service on some Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road lines, as well as a handful of subways. But as of Monday morning, the "entire system [was] functioning normally," according to MTA boss Janno Lieber, who credited the thousands of additional transit workers who surged into the system over the weekend.
Overall, the subways appeared to hold up better than it did earlier this summer, when historic rains from the remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa overwhelmed stations and left customers wading through waist-deep waters.
Scientists have warned that New York City is poised to see an increase in heavy rainfall events, as climate change boosts evaporation rates that lead to more moisture in the air. Cristantello, the National Weather Service meteorologist, said the phenomenon of added moisture appeared to play a role in this weekend's drenching.
"It provides the ingredients [for what we saw]," Cristentello added. "When you do have a tropical system, and those problems are already there, that’s going to be a lot of moisture."
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flooding
Tropical Storm
henri
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Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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