NYC subways swamped, streets flooded after record rain

New Yorkers know how to roll with the punches, but even this storm hit different.

A freak deluge Monday night turned parts of the city into a waterlogged maze, flooding subway stations, shutting down major roadways and delivering the second-wettest hour ever recorded in New York City history. Between 7 and 8 pm, Central Park clocked 2.07 inches of rain, second only to the remnants of Hurricane Ida in 2021.

Videos posted across social media showed just how bad it got. One now-viral clip captured water cascading into the 28th Street station on the 1 line, while passengers inside a train were seen climbing onto their seats to avoid ankle-deep water. MTA officials suspended several subway lines Monday night, though most service had resumed—with delays—by Tuesday morning.

The scenes were dramatic, but not unexpected. As Columbia geophysicist Klaus Jacob explained to the Brooklyn Eagle back in 2021, anything that’s a hole into a tunnel is a problem—especially with 39,000 open-air subway vents and a sewer system too outdated to keep up with today’s storms. The MTA has requested $6 billion to enhance stormwater resilience, but much of the work remains unfunded.

Above ground, it wasn’t much better. The Cross Bronx Expressway and Saw Mill River Parkway were among several roadways temporarily closed. In the Bronx, the Bronx River swelled to flood stage, prompting emergency rescues from stalled vehicles. In Harlem, a falling tree branch injured a pedestrian during the storm.

By sunrise Tuesday, the skies had cleared, but the cleanup had just begun. City workers were seen sweeping out stations and unclogging drains as the region braced for more unsettled weather later in the week, including a heat wave that could push the “real feel” into triple digits by Thursday.

Transit and environmental advocates wasted no time in pointing fingers. “Again and again, subway flooding tells us that climate change is real, it’s here and it’s urgent,” Danny Pearlstein of Riders Alliance told amNew York, calling for more green infrastructure and better emergency transit options.

By morning, trains were moving and the skies had cleared, but the storm left more than puddles behind. Once again, a few inches of rain were enough to paralyze the city’s core systems, from subways to sewers. New York may have dodged the worst-case scenario this time, but the message was hard to miss: Our infrastructure isn’t ready and the weather isn’t waiting.