Apocalyptic flooding brought New York City to a standstill Friday, with subway service suspended and murky rainwater seeping into buses attempting to navigate the city’s flooded roads.
The city’s mayor, Eric Adams, did not directly address the public till nearly noon Friday, despite the fact that his administration knew about the potential for a major downpour and potential flooding on Thursday, before the storm hit. Now, floodwaters remain in parts of the city — along with questions about its ability to mitigate the effects of climate change as storms like Friday’s.
As major climate events — like dangerous, smoky haze from Canadian wildfires earlier this summer, as well as flood water surge from Hurricane Sandy more than a decade ago — increasingly affect the city, the urgency of climate change mitigation policy and initiatives is clear, but whether the city has the capacity, funding, and political will to undertake such a monumental task is not. Although New York has undertaken ambitious study and planning projects, the effects of Friday’s storm indicate that mitigation projects aren’t happening quickly enough, and that the city won’t be prepared for the next storm when it inevitably happens.
Of course, New York City isn’t the only place that suffered from yesterday’s storms; parts of the northeast can expect heavy rainfall over the coming week, according to CNN. In fact, unusual rainfall has had an impact throughout the US this year, and flooding has devastated areas of Libya, Pakistan, and China over the past year.
“Everywhere is susceptible to these impacts,” University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann previously told Vox’s Li Zhou. “The western, central, and eastern US, Europe, and Asia — with one of the best examples being the Pakistan floods last year which displaced more than 30 million people.”
The city does have political infrastructure to address climate change
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned New…
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