“We are not prepared for the next storm” - Flooding Prompts Calls for Action As Henri Dumps 10" Of Rain on Brooklyn

Brooklyn seems to have dodged the worst of Tropical Storm Henri, which made landfall in Rhode Island on Sunday after being downgraded from a hurricane. But several parts of the borough nevertheless saw record rainfall and flooded streets, prompting calls for resilience action from local elected officials.

By Sunday afternoon, almost 10 inches of rain had fallen in Brooklyn over 36 hours, according to the National Weather Service. Subway service proceeded mostly uninterrupted, though the MTA said some trains were delayed at the agency’s Coney Island railyard on Sunday due to flooding, Lieber said. The MTA also banned empty tractor-trailers from crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge that connects Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Meanwhile, Twitter users shared videos of flooding on the Belt Parkway in southern Brooklyn, and on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope.

“For southern Brooklyn residents, this is not new,” Council Member Mark Treyger, who represents neighborhoods including Gravesend and Coney Island that have historically been hit hard by storms, told Bklyner.

"This is what we deal with even on non-hurricane events. On the west end of Coney Island, for example, even during small rainstorms it chronically floods, because sewer outflows get overrun by sea level rises and high tides in the creek.”