Two die in NYC basement flooding amid record rainfall

Two people died in separate basement flooding incidents in New York City on Thursday as a powerful rainstorm that broke daily rainfall records inundated neighborhoods, shut down roadways and disrupted flights, officials said. The victims were a 39-year-old man found in a flooded Brooklyn basement in the late afternoon and a 43-year-old man discovered in a flooded boiler room in Manhattan, both pronounced dead after emergency responders reached the scenes, police said.

Firefighters and an FDNY scuba team were dispatched to a three-story townhouse in Brooklyn near 4:30 p.m. after a report of a person trapped in a basement. Crews recovered the 39-year-old and he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. A neighbor told reporters the man had rescued one of his dogs and went back into the basement to try to save another; it remained unclear whether the animals were rescued. Video circulating from the scene showed firefighters carrying the victim through several inches of water in the street.

About 30 minutes later, officers responded to an apartment building in Washington Heights where a 43-year-old man was found unresponsive in a flooded boiler room. He was...