Here's why New York City floods

are getting worse and more

frequent
Katie Balevic Sep 29, 2023, 11:59 PM GMT+7

A man pushes a car through the flooded streets of Red Hook in Brooklyn on September 29, 2023.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

NYC floods are getting worse.

Being surrounded by water amid rising sea levels doesn't help.
Nor does the city's aging infrastructure and its rapidly sinking
foundations.

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It's another sopping wet day in New York as heavy rains bring forth mass
flooding across the city.

Multiple subway lines are suspended amid the flooding, cars are stuck on
thoroughfares, and people are wading through knee-deep water to get to
their destinations.

If you feel like you've seen this film before — and recently — you're not
wrong. Flooding is getting worse and more frequent in the city. Here's
why.

1. Rising sea levels

While sea levels are rising everywhere, they are a prominent threat to
New Yorkers. They've risen by a foot in the last 100 years and are
predicted to be about six feet higher than they are now by the end of the
century, according to the city's own estimations. By 2050, sea levels may
be 11 to 21 inches higher, according to New York City's guide on hazard
mitigation.

And if water isn't rising from below, it's falling from above. The climate
crisis has worsened excessive rains, making flooding even more likely.

A person pushes a barricade floating on a flooded Brooklyn street during a storm.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

2. Land sinking
New York is heavy. On top of the nearly 9 million people that may find
themselves in the city on a given day, the city has about 1 million
buildings, from skyscrapers to aging brownstones, according to the
hazard mitigation guide.

All of that weight causes a sinking phenomenon called subsidence, the

gradual sinking or caving in of land.
New York is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 mm per year, though
some areas of the metropolis are sinking even faster. To put it in context,
the city is sinking at the same rate as Venice, Italy, famously known as
the "floating city," Insider previously reported.

3. Water literally everywhere

The city's five boroughs touch more than 520 miles of shoreline
collectively. The close quarters with so many rivers, bays, and waterways
leave the surrounding areas susceptible to flooding.

Officials have considered a nearly $120 billion sea wall to protect the city
from storm surges and flooding, though some say the climate crisis
would make the wall superfluous, The New York Times reported.

Cars stranded in floodwater on the FDR highway in Manhattan.

ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

4. Wilting infrastructure
The city's aging infrastructure furthers the risk of flooding. The sewer
system, which is combined with the storm system, is only built to handle
1.75 inches of rain per hour, according to The Washington Post. When
heavy rainfall overtakes the system, the stormwater has nowhere to go.

Up to 3 inches of rain have already fallen in the city as of midday Friday,

and at least another 1 to 2 inches is expected, according to the National
Weather Service.

"When this happens, the combined sewer overflows (CSOs) — the mix of
excess stormwater and untreated sewage — flows directly into the
waterways," reads New York's hazard mitigation guide.