The Storm Warnings Were Dire. Why Couldn’t the City Be Protected?

New York City and state officials knew heavy rains were coming, but their preparations couldn’t save the city from death and destruction.

The warnings and maps seemed clear. On Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service issued a prediction that a wide swath of the Ohio Valley and the Eastern Seaboard would soon see heavy rainfall from what had once been Hurricane Ida. And one of the reddest portions of those maps — indicating severe rainfall and a high probability of flooding — hovered directly over New York City. Those predictions proved true. But the record intensity of the rain, with more than three inches falling in one hour, caught officials by surprise. And on Thursday, as the death toll in the Northeast rose to 43 people, including 23 in New Jersey and 15 in New York, questions quickly arose as to whether city and state officials were caught flat-footed by the storm’s ferocity.