Why was Ida so devastating as it flooded the Northeast?
“How can something like this happen?”
The plaintive question posed by a Queens resident whose neighbors drowned was on the lips of many after the remnants of Ida furiously swept through the Northeast.
Dozens of people from Virginia to Connecticut were killed Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Elected officials expressed shock at the severity of the deluge, but the National Weather Service as early as Monday had cautioned that Ida could bring flooding to the New York City area.