the United States is not ready

“If we can’t really manage what we’re in, there’s no hope it will improve in a hot climate,” Dahl said.

The country’s weakness in the face of bad weather was interrupted by torrential rains that engulfed the country’s largest city. New York City has invested billions of dollars in storm protection since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, investments that appear to have done little to mitigate the effects of flooding.

The rain poured down in raging torrents, turning the metro system into a kind of tearful race. Central Park recorded 7.19 inches of rain, nearly double the previous record set in 1927 for the same date, according to the National Weather Service, which issued the city’s first-ever flash flood emergency.

Before the storm, city and state officials activated preparedness plans: cleaning up drains, erecting storm barriers in subways and other sensitive areas, and warning the public. But the downpour poured out more water, and faster, than the city had calculated New stormwater maps NOT. “Severe” flooding has occurred.

The damage pattern reflects the relationship between climate exposure and racial inequalities: the effects were most pronounced in low-income communities of color, which, due to historical inequalities, are more prone to flooding, receive less income. maintenance of municipal services and often suffer from laxity. Enforcement of the Housing Act.

Most of the dead in New York drowned as floods poured into their basement apartments. Many of these apartments do not meet security requirements, but they have become affordable housing for working poor and illegal immigrants who may be afraid to complain to authorities about security breaches.

In one case, Tara Ramskrit, 43, and her son Nick, 22, drowned when their basement apartment in the Hollis section of Queens quickly filled with water, parents were unable to pull them away from the stream and a wall collapsed, causing them to collapse inside.