New York (AFP)

New York woke up stunned on Friday, after being hit by torrential rains and sudden, historic flooding that left at least 44 region dead in the devastating wake of Storm Ida.

In the American economic and cultural megalopolis, the police counted at least 13 victims, including several trapped and drowned in their basements, rudimentary housing, and sometimes unsanitary, arranged at the foot of buildings in Manhattan, Queens or Brooklyn.

Firefighters have rescued hundreds of residents.

"I'm 50 years old and I've never seen so much rain," said Metodija Mihajlov, restaurateur in the chic Upper West Side, near the famous park, New York's green lung.

"It was like in the jungle, a tropical rain. Incredible," added the trader.

Just north of Manhattan in upscale seaside Westchester County, which was still surrounded by muddy, brackish water Thursday night, one of its officials, George Latimer, told CNN that three people who had attempted to get out of their car were also likely to drown.

A police officer assigned to monitor traffic has died in neighboring Connecticut.

Finally, near Philadelphia, four people died, according to local authorities.

Streets, avenues, expressways were suddenly turned into torrents, both in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens.

In Westchester, dozens of vehicles were still submerged to the roof on Thursday and basements of pretty traditional East Coast houses devastated by water sometimes rising to two feet.

"I have the impression of having lost everything," Marcio Rodrigues, a mechanic in the town of Mamaroneck, told AFP in tears, in his flooded car workshop.

A car rushes into a flooded highway in Brooklyn, September 2, 2021 Ed JONES AFP

In New York, the gigantic subway network partially restarted Thursday, after the flooding of many stations.

The NWS, the US weather service, recorded an all-time high of 80mm of rain in one hour in Central Park.

- "Emergency state" -

The White House has declared a state of emergency in the states of New York and New Jersey, ordering federal agencies to "identify, mobilize and provide at discretion the necessary equipment and resources."

"We are all together. The nation is ready to help," said President Joe Biden, who is due to visit Louisiana on Friday, the first state to be devastated by Ida on Sunday, which destroyed many buildings and still deprives hundreds. thousands of homes with electricity.

The new governor of the State of New York, Kathy Hochul, had already declared the day before a state of emergency following the "major" floods in all the border counties of the city, potentially affecting some 20 million inhabitants .

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose city is just recovering from the pandemic, lamented a "historic meteorological event".

A car in a flooded driveway in Mamaroneck, New York after the passage of storm Ida, September 2, 2021 KENA BETANCUR AFP

The "state of emergency" for the floods is unprecedented for New York City, according to the US weather service.

- Climate deregulation -

Several politicians pointed the finger at climate change, two weeks after heavy rains from Storm Henri and nine years after Hurricane Sandy.

"Global warming is upon us and it will get worse and worse if we do nothing," warned New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

The trajectory of Ida AFP

Hurricanes and storms are a recurring phenomenon in the United States.

But the warming of the ocean surface is helping to make storms more powerful, scientists warn.

In particular, they pose an increasingly significant risk to coastal communities, victims of wave-submersion phenomena amplified by rising sea levels.

House destroyed by tornado in Mullica Hill, New Jersey, September 2, 2021 Branden Eastwood AFP

Downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, Ida darkened Thursday night over New England.

A tornado hit the very touristy Cape Cod peninsula in Massachusetts.

© 2021 AFP