Harlemites File Hundreds Of Damage Complaints After Storm, Floods

HARLEM, NY — After the remnants of Hurricane Ida pounded the city last week, officials asked New Yorkers to call 311 to report damage to their homes or streets.

In Harlem, residents appear to have heeded that call. From the evening of Sept. 1 — when the storm rolled in — through Tuesday, Harlemites have filed 422 complaints to 311 about flooding, water damage, fallen trees and utility outages, city records show. That's nearly double the week before, when only 222 complaints came in.

Mapping the complaints helps show which parts of Harlem suffered damage from the record rainfall and subsequent flooding.

Zoom in and click through the map below to explore each damage report. (Brown markers indicate flooded sewers and streets; red markers are water leaks in buildings; green are damaged or fallen trees, and yellow are hot water or heating outages.)

Damaged trees, unsurprisingly, are concentrated along the green blocks of Riverside Drive, with other clusters near Striver's Row and Morningside Park.

Flooded streets and sewers pervaded Harlem, including clusters near Striver's Row and a number of reports on West 121st Street.

Residential buildings reporting water leaks included a number of buildings on Broadway and Amsterdam avenues in Hamilton Heights, while utility outages appear concentrated in East Harlem, where dozens of addresses reported a lack of hot water.

Thunder and lightning, POURING rain, wind, and several inches of standing water just in my apt complex in Harlem. Flash flood and tornado warnings went off on our phones about ten times last night. https://t.co/rYs6Pj0sIX pic.twitter.com/Sa36sjaNfJ
— preseason bri (3-0) (@BQtheDQ) September 2, 2021

As a whole, Harlem appeared to suffer less severe damage than other parts of the city, like the neighborhoods in Queens in Brooklyn that saw a majority of the 13 deaths that occurred within the five boroughs.

Gale Brewer, the Manhattan Borough President, said that damage in Harlem included flooding in West Harlem near 125th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and power outages in Central Harlem near West 130th Street.

Video from Wednesday night also showed water gushing down the steps of the 145th Street subway station in Hamilton Heights.