Residents throughout Bayside, Queens are dealing with the aftermath of flash flooding that damaged homes and turned streets into rivers. After Thursday’s storm, Betsy Chavarria and her neighbors were waist-deep in water. Chavarria told ABC 7 New York, "The windows burst. We shut them so the water wouldn't come in but the pressure was so high the glass shattered and that's when we were like, we gotta get out of here." The Guerra family, also from Bayside, are managing a flooded basement—an issue they’ve faced for more than 15 years.
In response to the severe weather, cleanup efforts are underway after more than 6 inches of rain fell on Bayside, leading to significant disruption and evacuations. According to FOX 5 New York, residents were forced to seek higher ground and salvage what they could as rainwater poured in from all directions. The intensity of the downpour was so great that windows shattered under the pressure of the flooding.
Alongside personal accounts of the flooding, concerns about New York City's infrastructure have been raised. Tatiana Guerra of the Guerra family points out to ABC 7 New York, "You get all of the Queens backup sewage, so you smell everybody's stool and everything here." This highlights the issue of sewer backups occurring during severe weather, contributing to damage in the area.
Although residents like the Guerras invested $10,000 in a system to reduce flood damage, they expressed to ABC 7 New York that these efforts are ineffective without action from the city, "We installed a $10,000 system and we were waiting for a day like this to see if it worked. But it doesn't matter what you install. Until the city fixes that sewer issue, we're all gonna get hit when we get hit with flash floods."
Conversely, Andres Guerra described to FOX 5 New York how his street rapidly turned into "a river," forcing his family to evacuate quickly from their quickly flooding home as he raced to keep the rising water at bay.
