Residents in New York lambasted Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Mayor Bill de Blasio for failing to warn them about the severe storm that hit a Queens neighborhood and killed 13 people. She attributed the problem to change.
On Monday, De Blasio, AOC, and Senator Chuck Schumer paid a visit to Woodside, five days after the flood struck the city without warning, with rain falling at a rate of more than three inches per hour, triggering New York City’s first-ever flash flood emergency. Last week’s hurricane killed more than 40 people in both states.
“There was no warning. “I didn’t expect the water from my drain to be the one that killed me,” Woodside resident Dannette Rivera explained.
Rivera’s arms and stomach were still bruised from being dragged out of a basement window by her son as it filled with water from her drains on Wednesday night.
A public school teacher in nearby Elmhurst, Queens, yelled at AOC as she toured residents’ homes with de Blasio, Schumer, and Criswell, where floodwaters reached 12 feet in some areas.