![]() On the night of September 1, the National Weather Service sent repeated wireless emergency alerts to all newish phones targeted to a specific geographic area. There’s also a question of accurately communicating the danger, since most - not all, but most - New Yorkers are getting this information as push notifications to their phones. He wonders if language similar to Houston’s warnings about Harvey might have been more helpful, suggesting something along the lines of “Look, we’ve seen flooding a lot around here, but this is the next level, comparable to any of the worst events you can ever remember.” “Sometimes you get so hung up on getting the forecast right that you’re conveying all the meteorology, but that’s not what always helps people in their exact situations,” he says. And it’s likely not a term that New Yorkers were familiar with. But if you are up front right away, they’ll listen.” Even though New Yorkers had experienced major flash flooding from Hurricane Henri less than two weeks earlier, Ida’s rainfall prompted the city’s first ever “flash flood emergency.” It’s a newer term, Lanza says, created by the National Weather Service in the past decade to go one step beyond a flash-flood warning and communicate urgency. ![]() “If you go too far, people will tune you out. “Are alerts going out on people’s cell phones? How do we communicate? And are we doing a good enough job? Because I’m not going to stand here and guarantee it won’t happen again tomorrow.”Ĭonveying the deadly risk of fast-rising waters is the biggest challenge with flash flooding, says Matt Lanza, a meteorologist and managing editor for Space City Weather in Houston, where in 2017 he had to convey the risks of an unfathomable flooding forecast during Hurricane Harvey that ended up becoming the most extreme rain event in U.S. “Is our communication system adequate to let people know in homes and on subways that this is dangerous?” she asked. The following morning, as dozens of people had been killed in flooded basement apartments and in cars on roadways, New York Governor Kathy Hochul specifically singled out emergency-alert systems when she asked what had failed. “Areas that don’t normally experience flash flooding, could.” But after the suddenness and severity of the storm and its flooding became clear, a lot of people began to question whether that information had made it into New Yorkers’ decision-making that night. “Widespread major flood impacts, especially in urban areas and areas of steep terrain,” it warned. “Significant and life-threatening flooding,” reported the National Weather Service’s New York office on the morning of September 1, as the still-churning remnants of Hurricane Ida headed northeast. It was, meteorologically speaking, a perfect forecast. ![]() ![]() Photo-Illustration: Curbed Photos: Tina Keon Getty Images New Yorkers were overwhelmed by information as Ida’s unprecedented rainfall flooded the city. ![]()
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