Ida’s remnants brought six to eight inches (15 to 20 cm) of rain to a swath of the Northeast from Philadelphia to Connecticut and set an hourly record of 3.15 inches for Manhattan, breaking the previous one that was set less than two weeks ago, the National Weather Service said.
The 7.13 inches of rain that fell in New York City on Sept. 1 was the city’s fifth highest daily amount, it said.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference on Sept. 2 there were nine confirmed fatalities in New York caused by what he had described as a “historic weather event.”
New York officials blamed much of the flooding on the unexpected record-setting intensity of the rainfall that occurred in a short space of time, rather than the daily total for the day, which was within predictions.
“Because of climate change, unfortunately, this is something we’re going to have to deal with great regularity,” said Kathy Hochul, New York’s newly minted governor.