Unknown of how bad the storm would actually be until just about the day of, Hurricane Ida completely flooded the Northeast this past Wednesday night into Thursday morning (September 1-2, 2021). Multiple states were hit and suffered an unfortunate amount of irreparable damage including Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York on top of others who were not as involved. Social media has been showing various videos of the flood throughout the New York/New Jersey area in which citizens were genuinely canoeing to each other and floating on blow-up rafts down their local avenues.
While people who were lucky enough to either find or have a stable shelter during this time, others were praying for their loved ones to make it through as a reported 36 people lost their lives within New York and New Jersey; a total of 46 people were reported dead or missing from Maryland to Connecticut. One woman who resides with her son in a first-floor New York City apartment claimed to try and use ‘garbage bags and towels’ to prevent the flood from entering her home, but inevitably failed and had water up to her chest within 30 minutes. “I have no words… I was obviously scared, but I had to be strong for my son. I had to calm him down,” she expressed to officials as bodies of other residents was being taken out of her apartment building.
All citizens within the selected areas of where the hurricane hit were notified to find a safe place of shelter and to avoid being outside or travel of any kind unless you are maneuvering to a safe space. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio had this to say the day after the brutal storm, “We did not know that between 8:50 and 9:50 p.m. last night, that the heavens would literally open up and bring Niagara Falls level of water to the streets of New York.” Seeming to be a failed attempt at lightening the mood with a joke, the seriousness of this situation is no laughing matter as a majority of the Northeast will be cleaning up the remnants of Hurricane Ida for a long time.