Once again, New York City was flooded from a mere rainstorm. It happened on September 29. It wasn't a tropical storm or a hurricane. It was only a rainstorm. Yet, the city neglects its grossly-outdated infrastructure so it can continue its 150-year routine of embezzling money. Other first-world cities in the Netherlands and Italy (Venice) invested in waterproofing and flood barricades that save their communities from water damage. Not NYC--despite being the most expensive city in the world to live in.
Due to insufficient weather warnings from overpaid (yet highly unreliable) authorities and meteorologists, millions of workers entered Manhattan before the storm overtook the city. If the city had cared for their wellbeing, it would've warned them to stay home. But, as it did during the 3-day Canadian Wildfire Smoke Epidemic (when NYC had the worst polluted air quality in the world), it only cared about having people generate revenue... so it didn't tell anyone to stay home.
Lewis and I rode the same train during our morning commute to our jobs. Since NYC's transit system refuses to upgrade its entire fleet, the trains on our route are still from 1974. Seen below is my photo of the outdated windows that leaked water onto the seats. (It's like a third-world country).
The rain seemed to worsen as the train went underground from Astoria into Manhattan. I exited at the Fifth Avenue station. Already, rain water was pouring down the steps from the street. That's because NYC has the highest-paid sanitation workers in the world (and they accrue the highest amount of overtime pay in the world), yet they fail to clear the sewer gutters, so trash/leaves accumulates and causes street-flooding. Please watch my video of the water, and remember that Fifth Avenue is one of the priciest areas in the city...
Needless to say, Lewis and I got soaked from rain that drenched our clothes. Street corners were already flooded, so I had to jump or leap over the water to get to the next sidewalk. Every time my legs extended beyond my umbrella, they got pelted by dense rain!
Everyone at my office arrived for work, but some were delayed due to transit problems. Several people had to remove their soggy shoes and dry their socks in the office's microwave. Others stood by the heaters that are situated near their desks to dry their pants. (despite being an overpriced office building on Madison Avenue, the heating system is antiquated and inferior, so workers buy their own heaters). An hour later, we saw images on social media about the true severity of the storm! Despite being the wealthiest city in America, NYC was totally unprepared for the rain, and its crumbling infrastructure (in all five boroughs) quickly allowed rain to overwhelm everything.
Seen below, taxpayers hurried outside to manually unclog street drains (that their tax paid authorities didn't care to do), in efforts to save their homes. Residents (who pay $3,000 per month) with lower-level apartments lost their homes due to (easily avoidable) flooding. In many case, homes were flooded because unimproved sewage systems allowed a back-flow of water to get in!
(As usual in greedy NYC, insurance companies denied claims from customers who needed funds by saying that they didn't qualify for Hurricane Claims because it was merely a rainstorm).
As usual, when transportation and shipments were cancelled, the greedy/cheap companies avoided responsibility by claiming that it was "an act of God" and denied the facts that their infrastructure was insufficient.
Meanwhile, by 10 o'clock, national weather services still had not updated their forecasts! Here are screenshots of the AcuWeather app on my phone, and Weather.com from my colleague's phone. They still say "light rain" or "drizzle"! That's insanely inaccurate!
As a manager in the office, I immediately wanted to authorize everybody to go home for safety. In my opinion, the city should've issued advanced warnings to advise people to stay home and avoid unnecessary traveling. For decades, I worked for corporations and employers who claimed that "employee safety was their top concern" yet rarely let employees go home to escape snowstorms or tropical storms. (Even after the disastrous Hurricane Sandy, my company expected everyone to come to work during the next day! Recently my office's FedEx driver told us that his bosses made everyone sleep overnight at a warehouse during a snowstorm in January--instead of letting them go home before the storm arrived--and then compelled them to continue their work in the morning).
Alas, by that time, the outdated subway system was failing to operate. As we watched its website on our computers and phones, every route in the city was quickly suspended and all trains were cancelled. Subways don't work on sunny days, so the whole thing fails during heavy rainfall.
With the entire subway system suspended (in the world's richest city), the people in Manhattan couldn't get out of the city to go home.
Only after thousands of social media images and complaints were shared around the world, then the authorities "woke up" and publicized an Emergency Warning. It told people to stay home. Idiots.
Manhattan is an island, so if you can'y use tunnels, you must use bridges. Immediately, I activated my ride-share apps, and Uber thanked me for being a Top-Rated customer...
... yet its greedy/cheap system didn't care about me to prioritize a driver to pick me up. I waited for 14 minutes, while none of the nearby cars responded to my request. Uber can be useless--especially in an emergency. That's because it is ultra-capitalistic and heartlessly price-gouges its customers during emergencies and bad weather. It should be illegal to skyrocket prices when people are trying to get to safety, but NYC's corrupt government doesn't care. So, during New York's "State of Emergency", I watched 9 cars circling my vicinity, but they behaved like sharks who ignored customers until the prices got higher and higher.
I saw a taxi arrive at a hotel, so I ran and got in. Initially, the driver pretended not to understand English because he might not have wanted to go to Astoria. That's been an unchanged (and illegal) issue with NYC Taxis for the last 50 years. Nonetheless, I firmly got him to take me home.
While I waited for Lewis to get home, I saw more online images of devastation and destruction in the city. Every year, the city is inundated by flood water, yet it doesn't care to improve its infrastructure. Last year, the transit authorities got $3 billion of tax-funding, but $2 billion went to vague-sounding "consultation fees"! Nobody was arrested or fired, and the government doesn't care. Meanwhile, NYC promotes itself on TV shows to lure people to overpay to live there, and it expects inhabitants to tolerate its messes as part of "the privilege to live there". But look at these images that show the truth...
However, that false-advertising can't hide the fact that it is like a third-world country.
Our friend in Germany was enamored with New York because of the films and television shows that glamorize it. He wanted to have a vacation there... until he saw this. With a "vomit emoji", messaged us to say, "NYC was one of my dream-cities, but not anymore." From our own experiences, we emphasized.
