New York cleaning up after flash floods make mess of roads, subways and more

CBS News

a day ago

New York is cleaning up and trying to dry out after Monday night's torrential rains caused flash flooding and damage.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is giving remarks on cleanup efforts and storm damage in the Big Apple.
Some spots of the Saw Mill River Parkway are slowly reopening, but side streets in Yonkers were still drenched, with cars surrounded by water.
Crews are working to pump out the water with an eye toward reopening the roadways in time for the evening rush hour.
Rush hour Tuesday morning was a mess for drivers along the Saw Mill River Parkway, which was inundated with more than a foot of water in some spots, turning the parkway into a river.
"Everything is flooded and I've never seen it this flooded in my life and I grew up here," Yonkers resident Tiffany Perez said. "Actually it's kind of concerning."
At the Odell Avenue overpass, drivers could hardly make out the lane markers on the road due to flooding.
The Bronx River Parkway in Elmsford was also hit hard. Crews were trying to clean up the mess.
"We've had our crews out there since 5 o'clock in the morning trying to clean out storm drains. The challenge right now is because of the heavy rains and how quickly it came down, it was significant debris that has gotten put into different places, so we're really trying to work as hard as we can," Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said.
Floodwater drenched the industrial section of Elmsford. It's an issue businesses there like Brookfield Resource Management deal with regularly.
"It came faster than most, but all in all it's about a six out of ten," Ed Malone of Brookfield Resource Management said. "We went from 'Eh, it looks OK' to 'Oh, we're in trouble.' It happened quick."
Malone said the water came up to about 18 inches in his building. They have shelves in place to get supplies off the floor, and diamond-plate aluminum sheets on lobby walls to make cleanup easier.
"We're second generation, so, used to happen when our dads were here. We're always on the lookout and if there's even a slight chance we start going to high ground," Malone said.
In Rockland County, flooding snarled Route 59 near the Palisades Mall. A tree smashed into a home in Branchville.
While work continues to recover roads in the area, residents told CBS News New York they were having flashbacks to Superstorm Sandy and what it left behind.
"I think Sandy and a couple of hurricanes where the Saw Mill River Parkway was covered in water so it's about the same," one man said. "Going north it's like a lake. Up further it's still deep."