Welcome to monsoon season!
A day after record rains, the National Weather Service today issued a flash flood watch for the New York tri-state region.
The advisory is in effect until 9 p.m.
The weather service said showers and thunderstorms are expected to dump about 1-2 inches of rainfall. That’s on top of nearly 8 inches of rain that fell on New York City on yesterday.
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Today’s additional rainfall will create the potential for localized flash flooding across most of the region.
The highest amount of rain recorded yesterday in the New York City area was nearly 11 inches in Lido Beach on Long Island.
On Staten Island, two construction workers had to be rescued yesterday after taking the elevator to the basement of the Staten Island Hotel, which is being converted into a senior citizens residence, on Richmond Avenue. When they got to the basement, the room was flooded, and the gush of water destroyed the elevator’s electronics, trapping the men inside, officials said. The frantic pair managed to call 911, authorities said. But they didn’t know the hotel’s address — and the phone disconnected.
The FDNY finally managed to identify an intersection and reach the hotel. When firefighters got there, they drove around the site until “we heard yelling in the elevator shaft. It was submerged in water,” said Capt. James Melvin of Ladder Co. 86.
“They were happy to see us,” Melvin said of the men. “They were in there for about an hour, and they didn’t know what was going to happen.”
With AP