The drainage falls on lightly landscaped hillsides below - which also have walking paths and bike trails to be used in calmer weather - that can safely fill up during storms. The I-45 has big ducts down its edges - larger and more numerous than drainpipes - to sluice water off its roadway as it weaves through Buffalo Bayou Park. recorded history during Hurricane Harvey - heavy rainfall led the city to transform the land around its elevated highways into parklands that are designed to drain. In Houston - which experienced the most extreme rain event in U.S. Some cities are taking steps towards integrating transportation infrastructure into corridors that more closely resemble the original floodplain environments. “The roads keep getting wider, and the drains aren’t getting any bigger, so you have more pavement and the same drainage, and that creates catastrophe.” It’s a problem he sees a lot as engineers try to cram larger roadways into cities. He explains that a rainfall rate of three inches per hour - which New York experienced for part of last night - is far beyond what any of the city’s infrastructure was designed to handle. “Highways are impervious surfaces, and when the water falls on them, it runs into drains that were never built to accommodate these types of floodwaters,” says Sam Brody, executive director for the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas at Texas A&M University. But as slow-moving, moisture-saturated storms occur more often than ever before, even the elevated ones face challenges. DAmmaSgeiW- □□□□□ ☁️ September 2, 2021īelow-grade highways (like this portion of the BQE) are, obviously, uniquely vulnerable when it comes to flooding. I-278 (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) #nycweather #ida “The design of infrastructural highways, often at the water’s edge or in trenches that divided poor Black and brown communities,” says Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, director of the graduate landscape-architecture program at the City College of New York, “were not considered in light of sea-level rise or the increased rainfall that accompanies our hotter, wetter climate.” But in our permanent climate emergency - the New York region is now a humid subtropical zone where flash-flooding will be more frequent - the city’s highways in particular face a problem twice over, as they were deliberately run through communities with weak infrastructure, and many of those were low-lying areas already prone to flooding. Like much of the city’s old transportation infrastructure, our roads were not designed to take on this much water. Last night’s deluge also somehow flooded the approach to the Brooklyn Bridge, where the city’s likely next mayor was helping drivers move slowly through what looked like a leaky canal. The FDR Drive was swamped, the Long Island Expressway was inundated, and the Brooklyn - Queens Expressway was submerged, as flash floods turned New York City’s roadways into deadly rivers, killing at least one person trapped in a vehicle in Queens and eight people trapped in vehicles in New Jersey. Kids are more than welcome to join in on the fun, as long as they do so during reserved family time slots on Sundays.Highways throughout New York City flooded as the remnants of Hurricane Ida swept through. You’re going to have to keep a face covering on at all times, use the hand sanitizers available throughout the area and abide by the 20-minute session limit (it’s going to get crowded, after all!). The on-site staff also suggests you wear water-friendly attire as you are most definitely going to get a bit wet. You can do that right here.Īdditional information to keep in mind: novices and experts alike are welcome on the water and will all be looked after by safety boaters wearing red vests. Given COVID-19-adjacent restrictions, you’ll have to register for a session in advance. Now through the end of August, folks can grab a kayak on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and a take a spin on the water from Pier 2. Today’s announcement: free kayaking sessions at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse. The city’s coming back in all of its glory, as new exciting things to do are popping up across all boroughs each day.
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