Desi Talk

6 CITY VIEWS September 10, 2021 www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know Malathi Could Not Be Saved … Her Body Found Two Days After The Floods T he day after she went missing, Malathi’s family put out a search for the beloved mother of two. Her body was found Sept. 3, 2021, two days after the devastating floods caused by Ida mak- ing their way into New Jersey and NewYork with torrential rains that caused flash floods and destroyed many basements, and resulted in numerous deaths in the South Asian community. Many Indian families and their homes fell victim to the aftermath of Ida’s fury. “Malathi is missing from last night. She was last seen at around 8:20pm on route 22 east close to Lexus show- room. This was during heavy rains. She was wearing jeans and black tshirt,” was the message a neighbor sent along with a prepared visual flyer to identify Malathi. Desi Talk newspaper put up the poster in their publi- cation which was out Friday, but followed up with a call to check for any updates. There was an update but it was terrible news. “The cops just called to tell the family,” Nilu Verma, the family’s friend and neighbor, told Desi Talk on the afternoon of Sept. 3. “They found her body in Bound Brook River today,” Verma said holding back sobs. She asked that media not call the family about what was a tragedy they had come to know just minutes before. “We couldn’t do anything. I am a neighbor. We are all so broken,” Verma said. “I knew her personally,” Verma said. Now Malathi Kanche’s husband and two children, 19 and 15, are bereft. According to a news report in South Asia Monitor, Malathi Kanche’s was drowned after she was swept away when her car stalled on a flooded road. Also in New Jersey, Danush Reddy, 31, was sucked into a 36-inch (91-cm) sewer pipe by the floods, SAM reported. In addition, at least four people of Indian origin and a Nepali fam- ily of three died in the NewYork region. Phamatee Ramskriet, 43, and her son Krishah, 22, drowned when their basement flat flooded in NewYork City. Also killed in the flood were Mingma Sherpa, 48, and Ang Gelu Lama, 52, and their infant son Lobsang Lama, 2, who drowned when the waters inundated their base- ment flat after record rains. Of the total rainfall that day of 20.5 cm, more than 7.5 cm fell within an hour and NewYork Governor Kathy Hochul likened it to “Ni- agra Falls-level” of water falling on the city, South Asia Monitor noted. Even though Hurricane Ida was most devastating in Loui- siana state and its neighbors in the south where entire localities were totally destroyed, its dead- liest human toll was in the New York region where at least 42 people were killed – 25 in New Jersey, 16 in NewYork City and one in Connecticut, South Asia Monitor reported. By Ela Dutt Photo:courtesyfamily Family of Malath Kanche, 46, whose body was later found Friday Sept. 3, sent this poster in hopes of finding her. Life And Death Underground: N.Y. Immigrants Perish In Flooded Basements I n her first-story apartment, as the water rose to Deborah Torres’s waist, she heard the cries for help from below, from the basement where a 19-month- old baby lived with his parents. There was nothing Torres could do. She was trying to save her own life and get out of the three-story, red brick house in theWoodside section of Queens. There was nothing anyone could do. As water from the storm known as Ida deluged the cityWednesday, Sept.1, 2021, night, basements filled first. And in this basement, a family who’d come to America from Nepal was trapped inside a tiny apartment that wasn’t supposed to be an apartment. The weight of the water made the doors and windows in the basement immovable. The rush of rain was so loud, Torres could no longer hear the family below. Ang Gelu Lama, his wife, Mingma Yangji Sherpa, and their toddler, Lopsang, drowned to death in the two-bed- room space they called home. Police divers found their bodies at about 3:30 a.m. Thursday. Three miles away, in the East Elmhurst basement where Ernesto Moreno lived with his wife and two children, the water was already up to his calves, about to slosh into the power outlets. Moreno knew he had to get out now. He cast around desperately looking to grab his late father’s shoes and ashes, which Moreno had carried with him from Colombia to the United States four years ago. There was no time. Instead, he scrambled to find the one possession he couldn’t afford to lose: his family’s passports. Got them. Moreno and his 17-year-old son, Daniel, climbed out. Everyone was safe, and everything was lost. When the remnants of Hurricane Ida dropped seven inches of rain on the NewYork City area in about three hours, 49 people were killed in the Northeast, streets flooded and the region’s transportation pathways were paralyzed. In the city itself, 11 of the 13 people who were killed were found in basement apartments that, in most cases, were never legally converted into residential space. Most of the dead were immigrants; they’d come to New York fromTrinidad, Nepal and China. They were busboys and kitchen helpers and 7-Eleven clerks, and in a city where apartments rent for far more than many immi- grants’ first jobs pay, the only housing they’d been able to find was below ground. The story of Ida’s victims in the basements of NewYork is a tale of neglect and desperation, of strapped landlords straining to cover their nut and deciding to ignore the law, of an overwhelmed bureaucracy incapable of enforc- ing the city’s housing rules. Above all, it is the story of newcomers to a land of plenty, people who fled hardship only to find a different kind of struggle, families in which everyone works, often at two jobs, and can only barely hold onto an illegal, cramped space in the storage area of someone’s house. “Five of the six properties where NewYorkers tragically lost their lives during the floods were illegally converted cellar and basement apartments,” the city’s Buildings Commissioner Melanie La Rocca said in a statement. She said her inspectors fanned out after the storm to check more than a thousand properties. What they would find was more violations, more spaces where people weren’t supposed to be living, more places that, like the Lamas’ apartment, had already been the subject of complaints – to no avail. Someone had complained to the Buildings Depart- ment back in 2005 about the house where the Lamas would spend their few years in America. The complaint, about improper use of the building for commercial purposes, was closed, as many are, because an inspector showed up and couldn’t gain access to the house. When a city inspector returned Thursday, the building was “shaking” and “vibrating” from flood damage and the inspector couldn’t go inside, city records show. NewYork housing officials have known for decades that illegal basement apartments are potential death traps. There are at least 50,000 such units, many with only one means of egress, many without windows, many with few or no protections against fire. “At least 100,000 people – and there’s a strong possibil- ity there’s a lot more – are living in those apartments,” Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said Friday. “So many people who end up in the illegal basements are fearful to communicate for fear they might be evicted or, worse in their mind, deported.” On Thursday, Sept. 2, hours after the flooding, inspec- tors started issuing citations to landlords who had cre- ated cellar living space without permits. The only legal use of those spaces, the city’s inspectors wrote, was for “recreation, boiler and storage.” But the mayor assured basement occupants he’s not out to toss them out of their homes. Instead, he wants to use city resources to help owners upgrade basements to meet safety standards. Under NewYork law, basement dwellings need a window and must meet minimum space requirements. But many partly finished basement spaces get rented out even though the landlord – who often lives upstairs – has never sought an occupancy certificate from the city. Both de Blasio and his likely successor, Eric Adams, support efforts to legalize many of the apartments by helping homeowners pay for the upgrades needed to conform to housing regulations. But when the floodwaters cameWednesday night, the people in the basements were mostly on their own. They cried out for help, called neighbors, tried to reach 911. Some got out. Some got help, from the people upstairs, By Stephanie Lai,Vera Haller, Samira Sadeque, Marc Fisher Photo by Jeenah Moon forTheWashington Post The aftermath can be seen on Sept. 3, 2021, in Queens, N.Y., as heavy rains from Ida flooded many residences. - Continued On Page 7

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