Videos show New Yorkers wading through ‘chest high’ floodwater in subway stations after downpour

New York City subway stations flooded with several feet of water on Thursday afternoon, just a few hours before Storm Elsa officially hit. But the torrential downpour didn’t stop New Yorkers from completing their commutes. Or at least, trying to.

Several videos, now shared across various platforms on social media, show New Yorkers braving a “chest high” flood in the underground, some wading, sans any waterproof protection, to make it to the train on time.

Twitter user @PaulleeWR documented the especially damp afternoon, sharing a series of Tweets demonstrating New York commuters’ various solutions to stay dry(ish) at the 157th Street Station, en route to the 1 line.

The second video in the series shows several commuters on the subway stairs, donning garbage bags as make-shift ponchos, slowly descending into the depths one-by-one. Paullee calls this creative solution the “potato sack approach.”

The “potato sack” approach worked for some, but unfortunately, not all.

At the same station, but filmed from a different stairwell, a man can be seen wading through knee-deep waters, wearing a plastic bag — likely an impromptu umbrella replacement — upon his head.

Another clip, which one commenter noted “looks like a scene from Titanic,” shows the 149th Street Grand Concourse stairwell transforming into a waterfall.

“Stairs looking like a water park ride right now,” @subwaycreatures noted.

Such was the case for the 125th Street Station as well.

The New York City Transit Subways account reassured its followers that its “crews are actively addressing flooding issues in our stations, suggesting MTA riders to “pease be safe and do not enter flooded stations while our crews work to resolve this.

Sarah Feinberg, Interim President of the MTA, also tweeted that NYCT crews are working to resolve the issue, though some are displeased with the city’s response thus far.

For now, New York, please remember to pack an umbrella. Or canoe.