Hurricane Ida Offshoot Rips Across NYC, Floods Student Dorms
By: Rachel Fumilayo Lawal
Tags: Hurricane Ida, NYC, On Campus News, Floods, NYU

Hurricane Ida Offshoot Rips Across NYC, Floods Student Dorms

Graphic by author.

Torrential rain broke out in New York City Wednesday evening as the remnants of Hurricane Ida tore through the Northeast. Heavy downpour resulted in flash flooding, filling some areas of the city with chest-high water.

Many on-campus locations, including residence hall courtyards, basements, and hallways, reportedly flooded throughout the night. In addition, various Welcome Week leaders witnessed the severity of the storm firsthand, as some were stranded at the Kimmel Center long after events concluded at 10 p.m.. The events of Wednesday night led to a tumultuous first day of classes the next morning, with commutes drastically impeded.

Welcome Week leader and CAS junior Taylor Matteson was dancing on the steps at Kimmel when she first noticed flooding in Washington Square Park. At first, the fountain began to overflow, filling to the brim. She was brought inside when the tornado warning and flash flood notice were put into effect. (NYU sent a text alert for the tornado warning shortly after 9 p.m., cautioning students to seek shelter and avoid windows.)

“I was stuck in Kimmel for a while,” Matteson said, adding that Welcome Week leaders were unable to schedule Uber rides home. “I ended up taking the bus back to about a block away from my apartment and then walked the rest of the way in about an inch of water. I finally got home around midnight.”

“The whole thing was crazy and hectic,” she added. “Getting home was difficult, and my umbrella almost broke in the wind.”

Kristina Dawkins, a Liberal Studies sophomore and fellow Welcome Week leader, also made the difficult trek through the storm, to return to her residence hall. Not long after hosting her final Welcome Week event of the night, she found herself stuck wading through several inches of water down University Place.

“I just went and took a shower immediately, because I had walked through the water in sandals,” Dawkins added.

When she arrived at her Carlyle Court dorm, she realized the building didn’t escape the storm unscathed. The hall’s courtyard filled with ankle-deep water that evening, a great deal of which seeped into the building entrances and basement.

Carlyle Court was flooded with water a few inches deep. GIF credit to Kristina Dawkins.

The fallout from the storm didn’t stop at the floods at Carlyle. Social media posts showed seeping windows at Gramercy Green and flooded basements at Lipton, Rubin, and Greenwich Halls.

NYU Senior Director of Executive Communication Shonna Keogan confirmed that there was “minor” flooding in the resident halls, limited to the ground floor and basement levels. Student rooms weren’t affected majorly, according to her statement, although there were some minor spot leaks in a few student rooms in Carlyle and Second Street.

“Building staff have already responded and made repairs, and there has been no reported damage to student belongings,” she said in an email to Local.“NYU building facilities had a full staff working through the night and the following day, pumping out water, drying and sanitizing areas, and repairing any cosmetic damage resulting from the encroachment,” added Keogan.

Greenwich Hall basement signs warned students to avoid the basement. Image credit to Addison Knies.

Overnight, the situation worsened with severe flooding in the city’s subway system, leaving many students and faculty unable to commute to campus on the first day of the semester. In an email sent by University administrators yesterday morning, NYU announced their decision to remain open and proceed with hosting classes.

“There was no significant damage on campus, and we are unaware so far of any members of the NYU community being injured,” the email said.

Administration recommended that faculty unable to commute to campus reschedule or hold their classes remotely on Zoom, as well as accommodate students that were unable to travel.

Daniella Bernal, a Tisch junior and commuter, tweeted, “NYU has a large population of commuter students from outside of Manhattan; I don’t understand how they expect us to commute safely in a subway system that is underwater.” When asked about her personal situation, she mentioned that her entire neighborhood flooded and that she had family members stranded in Manhattan.

“It’s the fact that NYU left us uncertain and so many students were dealing with floods in their apartments,” Bernal said. “It was just super stressful and frustrating.”

The events on Wednesday night and Thursday morning brought the question of university accessibility and willingness to accommodate to the forefront, especially in regards to commuter students. There were no safety alerts from NYU suggesting alternative and safe methods of transportation, and several professors were reported to have held in-person classes regardless of their students’ ability to travel to campus.

The city itself experienced a great deal of damage overnight. There were many reports of basements flooding, and there have been 13 confirmed deaths in New York City alone — many of those lived in basement apartments. At least 43 people died in in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut due to the storm.

Image via NY Post

UPDATE: September 8, 2021: This story has been updated to include a statement from NYU Senior Director of Executive Communication, Shonna Keogan, in regards to flooding damages on campus.