On September 29th, 2023, NYC Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency because of a heavy storm that caused flash floods across the boroughs. The flooding caused major issues like flooded basements, delayed public transportation, Canceled flights, and left multiple people stranded on streets and roads.
Many schools and students were affected by this in the morning. John Dewey High School was one of the many schools affected by this downpour, with the front entrance completely flooded out by big bodies of water. This made it very difficult for students to make it into the building.
The main routes for public transportation for a vast majority of Dewey students (The D train and several nearly bus routes) were completely out of service, with the Belt Parkway heavily affected as well. This left many students stranded with no way to get to (or leave) school.
Multiple students were unprepared for the heavy rain. Students entered the building soaking wet. Many of their bookbags and their supplies were ruined by the rain. Students also had to walk through muddy paths to enter school, resulting in ruined shoes and dirtying the school floors.
John Dewey High School staff tried to accommodate students by giving them new and dry clothes for them to wear. They also put high powered fans to dry out the floor. However, problems still continued as classrooms all the way to the 3rd floor were getting flooded.
The staff was quick to try and clean the flooding, using water extracting vacuums to dry up the floors in the classrooms that were flooded.
“I had a journey around the school to the side of the parking lot to avoid the huge pools of water and mud.” said senior Sarah Gonzalez on her commute to school.
“I think the school did their best to help. I saw the principal and her staff doing all that they can to try and dry the floors so students don’t slip, her priority was getting students safe and dry.” Mr Garcia, a global history teacher said.
¨[Dewey staff] gave [students] free sweatshirts and free jogging pants. Realistically, Dewey couldn’t do very much about the weather. It wasn’t their fault that it rained so hard, but they did their best to help.¨ said economics teacher Mr. Stoppini.
With everything that happened on this day and all that were affected, John Dewey High School was able to work around these obstacles to ensure that everyone’s safety was a priority.
