Man dies trapped in flooded basement as New York is hit by heavy rain | New York

A man’s body was recovered from a flooded basement in New York City on Thursday during a rainstorm that closed roads and caused airport delays, authorities said.

A dive team recovered the body of a 39-year-old man after firefighters received a phone call from a person trapped in a flooded basement in Brooklyn around 4:30 p.m., police said. The man, whose name was not revealed, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Some areas across the city saw record rainfall. The National Weather Service said preliminary reports showed that 1.8 inches (4.57 cm) of rain fell in Central Park on Thursday, which would exceed the record of 1.64 inches (4.17 cm) set in the park in 1917.

LaGuardia Airport recorded 1.97 inches (5 cm) of rain, which would break the 1955 record of 1.18 inches (3 cm) for that airport.

New York experienced hours of precipitation of varying intensity on Thursday before evening. Pictures and videos posted on social media showed water rising to car fenders and flowing into subway stations.

“When you look at the amount of water that was falling, our sewer systems weren’t built to handle that. It was just raining constantly the whole time,” Mayor Eric Adams told radio station 1010 WINS.

The dangers that flash floods can pose to residents of the city’s thousands of basement apartments came into sharp focus in 2021, when torrential rains killed 11 people in such dwellings.