New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has warned residents to be alert for heavy flooding overnight Wednesday - after being slammed last week for failing to alert the city ahead of deadly storm Ida.
The remnants of Hurricane Ida hit the city last Wednesday night, with 13 NYC residents dying in flash floods.
But the mayor has been slammed for his poor response, after he failed to alert the city and only declared a state of emergency after the bodies of seven residents - including a two-year-old boy - were found in flooded basement homes.
At his daily presser on Wednesday, de Blasio seemed keen to cover his bases and not get caught off guard again.
The National Weather Service has forecast possible scattered rainstorms and heavy downpours as a cold front passes through the New York area late Wednesday and predicted half an inch to 1.5 inches average storm total rainfall, estimating the reasonable worst case rainfall is two to 2.5 inches.
But despite the comparatively small amount of rain projected, de Blasio was keen to warn people to 'take precautions'.
'That normally would not be an issue at all,' he said of the up to 2.5 inches of rain projected.
'Obviously we're concerned that folks who were hit that any new water could be a problem and were also concerned that we could see more than is projected so we want people to hear immediately there is rain coming...so home owners and businesses can take precautions.'
The NWS issued a hazardous weather warning for flash flooding and severe weather late Wednesday into early Thursday for parts of the Northeast.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms are forecasted to begin mid to late afternoon and the window of concern being between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday.
'We know how rapidly weather is changing, its like nothing we've ever seen before,' de Blasio said during Wednesday's presser
At the press conference, the mayor also spoke about overcoming hurricane Ida and thanked President Biden for visiting Queens on Tuesday.
Furious New Yorkers slammed de Blasio following last week's devastation for not giving more warning about the potential for catastrophic flooding.
New Yorkers were largely unaware of what was in store for them last night and many found themselves stuck on trains when the storm hit.
The National Weather Service prediction center sent out a tweet at 2.40pm that a severe rainstorm was on the way.
But
