New York, 1 October 2023 (tca/dpa/MIA) — A day after New Yorkers found themselves swamped in flooded subways and soaking in waterlogged basements, some wondered why they weren’t given more advance warning of the Friday storm that shut down much of the city.

As the storm roared into New York Friday morning, thousands of New Yorkers were caught off guard. The pounding rain quickly overwhelmed the city’s ageing mass transit infrastructure, stalling subway lines in Brooklyn and across the five boroughs.

City residents waited on platforms, sat stuck in subway cars or were stalled on roadways flood waters had rendered impassable.

"I think there was a lot of under-communication," Chinatown resident Jessica Langrock, 26, said Saturday.

"There were phone alerts sent ... The alerts were morning of, after the storm already happened. So at that point, your basement’s sort of already flooded."

Amid questions of whether school should have been cancelled, parents were left wondering Friday if their children would be able to get home safely, with some venturing out into the storm to try and get to their kids. An estimated 150 schools experienced some level of flooding.

Ditmas Park mother Nancy Cruz, who spent most of the day Friday in her car, shuttling her children to and from schools through hazardous conditions in Brooklyn, said the city needed to do better by its residents.

"The mayor should have been on top of this," said Cruz. "If we had received a notice that these conditions were going to be severe, either that or we had the option to do remote schooling, I would not have sent my kids to school."

Those frustrations were voiced Saturday by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who slammed Mayor Adams for doing a poor job of getting out word of the impending record-setting storm, which dumped a record eight inches of rain at Kennedy Airport.

"There was a plan. Why would you not share that plan with the city, so everybody knows what’s going on? ... Why you would not do that if you have this plan is beyond me," Williams said Saturday.

But Williams tempered his criticism by saying city agencies appeared to handle the situation well. "I do want to give credit, because it seems like the agencies were ready and prepared to step up," Williams said.

Mayor Adams deflected criticism that his administration had not adequately prepared residents for the storm, saying Friday that anyone caught off guard "must have been living under a rock."

Adams offered praise Saturday for the city’s storm-fighting efforts, which included three rescues from flooded basements and 15 car rescues of stranded drivers, all carried out by the Fire Department.

Adams spoke after he toured Canarsie, Flatbush, Sheepshead Bay and other Brooklyn neighborhoods.

"(We) just really need to commend the city," he said. "It’s unprecedented when you get this level of rainfall and now we’re moving to the second phase to make sure we clean up those areas that were heavily hit."

Governor Hochul described the pounding storm as New York’s worst in decades. "There are some New Yorkers who have never seen the likes of what we experienced in their entire lives," the governor said Saturday as rain continued to fall in some areas.

"It’s Mother Nature at her most powerful," Hochul added.

A state of emergency remained in effect Saturday in the storm’s aftermath, which remained visible around the city. One disabled vehicle was still sitting in the middle of a South Williamsburg street, with a light rain still falling.

Hochul reported 28 New Yorkers in the Hudson Valley and Long Island were rescued Friday from the raging waters, adding severe weather like the storm was becoming a more regular threat due to climate change.

"This was the kind of rain that was once unimaginable," she said. "Called it a once-in-a-century storm. But this is the third time since I was sworn in two years ago I’ve had a once-in-a-century storm."

Besides 200mm of rain that fell at JFK Airport, the National Weather Service reported more more than 150mm fell in the Bronx and Manhattan and more than 175mm in Brooklyn.