Rains Cause Severe Flooding in Gowanus
Today’s rains have caused severe flooding in parts of Brooklyn. This seems to be centered around the Gowanus Canal, which has made another of its increasingly less rare floods.
Pictures posted to social media from the music PR company Chart Room Media show cars struggling to pass through flooded streets, and other scenes that make Brooklyn look like Venice, the result of just a few hours of heavy rain today.
http://twitter.com/NYScanner/status/860556949775159296
The Gowanus Canal is heavily polluted, and was named a Superfund cleanup site in 2010 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Last year, the city began several projects which aimed to reduce flooding and flood damage in Gowanus. In February, it announced that it would soon begin a $52 million storm sewer project designed to alleviate regular overlows from the canal. It is slated for completion in 2020. Separately, there is a $10 million project to reduce roadway damage near the canal. Work on that effort isn’t expected to begin until the fall of 2017.