This article was originally published on September 1 at 5:56 p.m. EDT by THE CITY REPORTER
The remnants of Hurricane Ida barreled through New York City five years ago, dumping unprecedented amounts of rain on the city and resulting in 13 New Yorkers’ deaths. The storm, which served as a wake-up call about the safety risks of extreme rain, still looms large today, having marked a shift in how city officials and residents recognized inland flooding as an urgent problem.
“Ida is precisely the day we stopped primarily worrying about coastal flooding and started worrying about stormwater,” said Rohit Aggarwala, the city’s former chief climate officer and environmental protection commissioner…