![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/new-york-floods-basement-rescues-spark-climate-change-concerns/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/131293725_gettyimages-1708160631.jpg&description=Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Housing advocates say climate change is turning New York's basement dwellings into 'death traps' As flash floods inundated New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said: "If you're home, stay home." But for those living in below-ground apartments in basements and cellars, that was not an option. An estimated 100,000 New Yorkers reside in a vast network of illegal basement dwellings that the impacts of climate change are remaking into "death traps". When Hurricane Ida hit the city two years ago, 11 such residents died. On Friday, city officials said at least six had to be rescued amid the floods. A "number of calls" had come in seeking help related to flooding basements, fire department commissioner Laura Kavanagh said at a storm briefing. Thankfully, she added, there were no death or injuries to report among these incidents. Mayor Adams promised shelters would be made available to any basement renters who needed them, and his emergency department chief urged such residents, particularly in the Brooklyn and Queens boroughs, to seek higher ground. "We're taking this extremely seriously," Zach Iscol said. "Today is the wettest day we've had since Ida." Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Some parts of New York may see up to eight inches of rainfall on Friday It was a call back to two years ago, when the remnants of Ida - a category four hurricane that had weakened to a storm - drenched the city with torrential rain. As water deluged the roads and poured into subway stations, it also drowned 11 Asian and Hispanic immigrants, including a two-year-old boy and an 86-year-old woman, inside their own homes in Brooklyn and Queens. Bodycam footage from New York police that day showed a dramatic rescue effort in one Woodside, Queens home. Wading through chest-high waters that continued to rise quickly, the responding officers had their path blocked by locked doors, were forced to retreat due live electrical wiring and called for back up. B){kind=link}
As flash floods inundated New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said: “If you’re home, stay home.” But for those living in below-ground apartments in basements and cellars, that was not an option.
An estimated 100,000 New Yorkers reside in a vast network of illegal basement dwellings that the impacts of climate change are remaking into “death traps”.
When Hurricane Ida hit the city two years ago, 11 such residents died.
On Friday, city officials said at least six had to be rescued amid the floods.
A “number of calls” had come in seeking help related to flooding basements, fire department commissioner Laura Kavanagh said at a storm briefing.