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Comment by digitalsushi | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to hear from people who are there right now. How scary is this? Because it looks like the end of the world. But are we all watching the same whirlpool video and it was cherry picked doom, or is it really that bad everywhere?

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The videos show the worst spots--in most cases you can get around them, assuming you have time and aren't worried about getting wet.

It's definitely scary and dangerous if you or your car happens to be stuck in the water. If you're in an apartment that doesn't have drainage issues, you can probably stay inside without noticing much. If you own a house with a basement in some neighborhoods, there's a good chance you have (potentially sewage-contaminated) water flowing into it.

Right now it’s not scary at all. If anything I’m impressed by the city’s drainage systems because this morning was an absolute horror show in my area of Brooklyn.

IMO the bigger story from this particular storm is the lack of preparation by the Mayor’s office. We heard very little about the oncoming storm from government sources. Declaring a state of emergency is all very well but it’s (literally!) pretty late in the day.

I live in Brooklyn. It's.... as bad as Ida was 2 years ago, maybe slightly less.

My cellar flooded, but I was able to pump it out as the storm drains caught up. I've changed some plumbing in prep -- Ida I took 2' in the Cellar, today I had about 2" when I was able to pump out.

The most dangerous thing is cellar apartments (of which there are many illegal) that can flood quickly.

Glad to read to you’re much better prepared!

Agree about the basement apartments, in particular it seems to be the ones with the doors that open inwards that become death traps with flooding

> doors that open inwards that become death traps with flooding

Do you mean doors that open outwards? The weight/pressure of floodwater outside the door would seal it shut from the outside, whereas it would eventually break open a door that opens inwards, right? Is it the violence of the breakin itself that's so dangerous with inward-opening doors?

Perhaps I'm misremembering this but IIRC the news at the time the pressure against the door from the inside made it too hard to pull open at get out.

I just biked from midtown Manhattan to Prospect park since I couldn’t commute by train.

It’s fine. More puddles, more street closures, more aggressive drivers. Just NYC on a sugar rush.

I biked through Prospect Park this morning and it was absolutely hellish. A lot has changed in the last eight hours or so.

Did not enter the park. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of trees have fallen on the loop.

I have family all over NYC. Seems like Brooklyn got hit the hardest. The video they took and sent me, some streets are about knee height. Other borough are flooded enough to effect homes and basements but nothing catastrophically bad. The worse part is the backed up drains and sewers.

I took the subway to broad street, took the boat to the statue of liberty and walked back to Soho. That whole region of Manhattan, at least, is fine. There were some delays on the subway because someone slipped on the stairs from the rain and needed medical attention, that's about it.

I spent all day with friends going around Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. We had to Uber around since the subway was mostly disabled. That was expensive and traffic wasn't great but we got around just fine. All the places we went to were open and happy to serve us.

8 million people across 300 square miles, so there’s variety. It’s fine near me, but canceled dinner plans because of train issues.

Media will highlight the worst.

Depends on location. UWS is high ground. Its just rainy and wet but that's it.

Its not all areas of Brooklyn that are flooded of course. Some of those areas flooded usually experience some kind of flooding when it rains heavily. There was a heavy monsoon like downpour on 4 th of July for about an hour and there was flooding in the Prospect Park area and Windsor terrace area(flooded now again); Enough that given I was in my previously lowered car I wouldn't have been able to drive through it.

Another flooded area Borough Park is flat and I believe gets a lot of run off from the more elevation Sunset park neighborhood nextdoor.

It’s fine. There’s a map somewhere with all the spots where floods will happen. Good to reference before living somewhere new.

It was a river in the street. Sewers were backed up.

However it was fine. Just had to bucket some water out of some inconvenient areas.

Some kids went to school. My daughter did not. Some coworkers went in and got stuck on the subway.

A very unpleasant day but nothing to freak about.

In the suburbs, people were evacuated from the low areas. I went out for an hour and getting home was a challenge because most roads were closed down due to flooding

Not a local but drove into Long Island city for a date night in midtown. Wouldn’t have guessed there was a noteworthy problem although there was a lot of rain.

In Manhattan, at least, there has been a significant amount of rainfall, but things have mostly cleared up now on the streets.

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