Declaring a state of emergency

Looks like the New York City mayor needs to get their priorities straight. London Daily Mail:

Furious New Yorkers slam De Blasio for giving no warning about Hurricane Ida: NYC Mayor only declared state of emergency AFTER seven people - including a family of three - were found dead in their basements as tri-state death toll rises to at least 41

• • 41 people are dead across the Northeast including 12 people in New York City alone
  • Eleven people drowned in their basement homes in Brooklyn and Queens, including a two-year-old boy
  • Their bodies were all found between 10pm and midnight but a state of emergency wasn't declared until 11.30
  • The subway system was not suspended until 10.48pm and a Flash Flood Emergency went out at 10.25pm
  • The NWS in New York had declared it an hour earlier, shortly before 9.30pm
  • Furious New Yorkers blamed de Blasio for not giving them more warning or communicating the severity
  • De Blasio said on Thursday he thought 3 to 6 inches of rain would fall all day - but 3.5 inches fell per hour
  • Governor Kathy Hochul said she was now investigating whether more could have been done to warn people
  • De Blasio, AOC and Senator Chuck Schumer all took the catastrophe back to climate change on Thursday and asked for more commitment from the White House on going green
  • President Biden also spoke on Thursday about Ida but he devoted his speech to climate change too
  • In the meantime, some 25,000 people in NYC were without power and bodies were still being found in water

Furious New Yorkers slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday for not giving more warning for the catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Ida and only declaring a state of emergency after the bodies of seven residents - including a two-year-old boy - were found in flooded basement homes.  

Ida tormented the South earlier this week as a hurricane then was downgraded to a tropical storm. Meteorologists predicted that it would shower the northeast on Thursday and Friday before moving off-coast, but the amount of rain that fell was beyond anything any residents had anticipated, and tornadoes that ripped up New Jersey had not been expected.  

At least 41 people have been found dead across the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland on Thursday, and the death toll is expected to rise.

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 blasted a tweet at 2.40pm that a severe rainstorm was on the way, but nothing came from de Blasio's office until around 7.20pm. 

I do not see anything on the New York emergency management websites - this will take a couple week to trickle out but I am amazed that there was not more pre-emptive warning from the Mayor's office. They certainly had ample warning that it was headed thier way. A bit more:

The Governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania gave earlier warnings but New York Governor Kathy Hochul didn't declare a state of emergency until after midnight, and de Blasio only declared a state of emergency at 11.26pm. 

The good thing is that people will remember this when they go to vote.

And, of course, the usual braying ninnies had to get their two cents in:

Senator Chuck Schumer, who was also at the press conference, blamed the ferocity of the storm on climate change.

He and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent Thursday demanding more environmental commitment from the White House.

Schumer would not recognize the truth if it hit him between his eyes.
Living inside a bubble of his own making. Pathetic really...

The article has a good collection of photos - flooding, wind damage. This hit them hard.
The Gulf Coast knew full well what was coming.  New England did not have a clue.