Heavy Rain Floods Parts of New York City on Saturday, Causing Airport and Highway Disruptions

Flood waters started rising around 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, prompting flash flooding warnings across all five boroughs as the downpour forced ground stops at the city's busiest airports and shut down major expressways. The heaviest rain fell across lower Manhattan and western Brooklyn and Queens, the city's Office of Emergency Management said.

Tringa H, the 32-year-old manager at Felix Bar & Restaurant, told the New York Post she had never seen flooding this bad in the city before. “I mean, besides Hurricane Sandy, have I seen a flood like this before in Soho, ever,” she said. Customers pulled up their pants and skirts to walk through filthy water to enter the restaurant.

Sally Louhibi, 45, was at the restaurant watching the France versus England World Cup game when the waters rose. “The whole street emptied out and the cars couldn’t really move and people across the road were trying to walk out in garbage bags, which is really quite embarrassing,” she told the New York Post. Prokes told the New York Post: “I’ve never seen anything like it.