New York City livens up after subways reopen following heavy flooding

New York City sprung back to life on Saturday morning after public transportation returned to full service following intense flooding that largely brought the city to a halt.

The city was pounded by an average of about 6 inches of rain Friday, with many neighborhoods breaking weather records. The weather station at John F. Kennedy Airport tracked 8.65 inches of rain Friday, the most since at least 1948, according to the National Weather Service.

One neighborhood in Brooklyn saw at least 2.5 inches of rain in a single hour, turning streets into rivers and stranding drivers.

As flooding receded Friday, light rain continued across the metropolitan area.

“We’ve seen a whole lot of rainfall in a very short period of time,” Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) said Saturday. “But the good news is that the storm will pass, and we should see some clearing of waterways today and tonight.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul both declared states of emergency over the flooding on Friday, freeing emergency relief funds for response and recovery efforts.

Nearly every line in the New York Subway system was partially or completely suspended on Friday, as excessive rain flow made it unsafe to use some stations and tunnels. The worst of the impact was in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.

A travel advisory from the MTA expired Saturday morning, and a flood watch from the National Weather Service expired Friday evening.

JFK and LaGuardia Airports fell off the top global spots for flight cancellations and delays as air travel returned to normal. About a dozen flights were canceled at JFK between Friday evening and Saturday morning, and none were canceled from LaGuardia, according to tracker FlightAware.

LaGuardia’s Terminal A, which was closed due to flooding for much of Friday, reopened just after 8:30 p.m.

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