Ida Causes Number Of Damage Complaints To Shoot Up In Inwood

INWOOD, 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 Inwood, residents appear to have heeded that call. From the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 1 — when the storm came crashing in — through Sunday — Inwood residents filed 69 complaints to 311 about flooding, water damage, fallen trees, and utility outages, city records show. That's nearly double the number recorded in the neighborhood during the five days directly before Sept. 1, when only 36 complaints about the same issues came in.

Finding hotspots from the complaints helps show which parts of Inwood suffered damage from the record rainfall and subsequent flooding.

When it came to storm-related damages, residents in buildings on Sherman Avenue called into 311 at more than twice the rate of any other Inwood avenue.

311 Damage Complaints By Inwood Avenue From Sept. 1 - 5

• Sherman: 15
• Isham: 9
• Nagle: 6
• Post 6
• Seaman: 6

Flooded streets and sewers pervaded Inwood, including clusters near 118 Post Avenue, 132 Sherman Avenue, and between 217th and 218th Street.

The most common complaint in Inwood was utility outages, as more than 25 addresses reported a lack of hot water during or in the days after the Wednesday night storm.

The collapse of a retaining wall at Park Terrace West and 218th Street during the storm was one of the worst incidents of structural failure seen throughout the entire city, prompting a visit from Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday.

Visited Inwood this afternoon with @RepEspaillat, @RJackson_NYC, @CnDelarosa, @MarkLevineNYC and saw the effects of Ida's devastation first-hand.

Heavy rains caused part of a parking garage to collapse here.

We will make sure our neighbors get the help they need. pic.twitter.com/ns5IobaHvj
— Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) September 4, 2021

Hochul was joined on the tour of Inwood by Rep. Adriano Espaillat, State Senator Robert Jackson, Assembly Member Carmen De La Rosa, and Council Member Mark Levine.

Other noteworthy damage complaints within the 311 data from Sept. 1 through 5, included an entire tree down at 25 Indian Road, oil and grease in bathroom water at 110 Post Avenue, and a power outage at 210 Sherman Avenue.

There was just one complaint from the neighborhood that specified basement flooding, a phenomenon that turned deadly in other parts of the city. The one report of basement flooding in Inwood came from 123 Sherman Avenue.

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

Patch reporter Nick Garber contributed to this report.

Read More: Retaining Wall Collapses In Inwood: Upper Manhattan Storm Recap