Video: Bayside, Queens sees 6+ inches of rain; floods wreck havoc

Bayside, Queens sees over 6 inches of rain

The clean-up effort is underway after New York City was hit by severe rainfall. Residents of Bayside, Queens are attempting to salvage their possessions after the area experienced intense flooding. FOX 5 NY's Meredith Gorman has the details.

BAYSIDE - The clean-up effort is underway after New York City was hit by severe rainfall. 

Bayside hit with over 6 inches of rain

What we know:

New York and New Jersey saw a deluge of rain when slow-moving storms slammed the area Thursday afternoon, with some localized areas seeing as much as 5 inches of rain in just a few hours.

Bayside, Queens experienced 6.35 inches of rain in a two-to-three-hour period last night, July 31. 

FOX 5 NY's Meredith Gorman spoke to some residents in the area, who are now spending the day attempting to salvage whatever possessions they can after their homes experienced flooding.

One resident, Betsy Chavarria, told Gorman, "The water was coming from the windows… the windows burst and glass went everywhere – it scared my son."

Chavarria's windows burst after she attempted to take her AC units out of the windows. The rainwater immediately began flooding her home, to the point that her neighbors decided to take her four-year-old son to a higher level.

"At that moment, we decided we needed to evacuate."

Another Bayside resident, Andres Guerra, told Gorman that the flooding began at around 3 p.m. yesterday; Guerra was forced to rush home from work while his street became, in his own words, "a river."

"I rushed through, I got to the house, I realized the situation was very extreme," he said. "The water started elevating in my room, the basement was completely gone."