How residents of basements should behave during floods: recommendations from the New York City Hall

Apartments in so-called basements, or simply in basements and ground floors, are traditionally very popular among new immigrants. They are usually cheaper and often the owners do not particularly check the documents of the tenants, because renting out most of these premises is illegal in New York. Two years ago, during Hurricane Ida, 11 people died because they were unable to escape from their basement apartments, which were completely flooded with water. Since then, the city has been trying to legalize residential basements, and rescuers tell how to protect their lives in them.

The first and main advice from the head of the New York Department of Emergency Management, Zach Iscol, is to always have a “disturbance case”. What to put there, everyone can decide individually, but it should definitely contain documents (or at least copies of them), a certain amount of cash, the necessary medicines, a set of spare clothes for the season.

For complete preparation, the Department even created a special brochure that explains how to properly prepare for emergency situations. You can download it in Russian here.

If a flood occurs, residents of basements should remember: they need to urgently leave their apartments, but it is advisable not to go outside.

"People need to understand that being outside during a flood is an incredibly dangerous situation. Therefore, they need to leave the basement and move either to the residents of the upper floors of the building in which they live, or to the lobby on the ground floor, if there is one, explained Zach Iscol. – The terrible truth is that emergency response services are often unable to come to the rescue in time due to the raging nature. That's why when you receive a flood warning from the National Weather Service, you have a certain amount of time to evacuate to any high ground near you. Do not ignore these warnings!"

Iscol noted that the mayor's office has an idea to create shelters where people can evacuate in case of flash floods.

The head of the Department of Emergency Situations told how owners of basements can make them safer for residents. For example, install flood alarms. Make sure that all doors open inward and not outward. Because a strong flow of water can block their opening. And if you have bars on the basement windows, install a mechanism on them that allows you to easily open them from the inside - so that people can always get out in case of danger.