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Heartbreaking video shows NYPD divers trying to rescue family after apartment floods

A two-year-old child Lobsang 'Ang' was found dead inside with his parents, Mingma Sherpa, 48, and 50-year-old Ang Gelu Lama

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A family of three have died a very tragic death after Hurricane Ida brought record rainfall to New York. The two-year-old Lobsang 'Ang' along with his Nepalese parents, 50-year-old Ang Gelu Lama and Mingma Sherpa, 48, drowned inside their underground apartment in Woodside, Queens. Their bodies were found Thursday, September 2, after New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers dove into the flooded apartment to save them.

The disturbing bodycam footage shows cops searching through the house completely filled with dirty floodwaters as plush kids’ toys and a can of Lysol disinfectant spray floats by. One of the cops then dives into the water after which the other one, who was filming the rescue attempt, also goes into the water to assist the first cop. NYPD tweeted that, “Without special equipment they [officers] made valiant efforts. Locked doors, rising water level & live electricity forced the officers to call for the @FDNY,” before adding: “Unfortunately when specialized units arrived, they found three people [had] died from drowning.”

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Choi Sledge, one of the neighbors of the deceased family, said that the flash flood water began entering the basement house at around 9:30 pm in the night on Wednesday. Sledge recalled that Sherpa even called her for help. “The water is coming in right now...The water coming in from the window!” the child’s mother had told her neighbor, who lives on the complex's third floor. Sledge said that she asked Sherpa to come upstairs but when the family did not come, she called them again, minutes later and received no reply.

Deborah Torres, 38, who lives on the first floor of the complex, said: “I wasn't paying attention to my things — I was so worried about the family downstairs. It was so fast. My daughter started to scream, 'Mommy! Mommy! The water's coming up! I think the pressure of the water was too strong that they couldn't open the door [to get out and up the stairs]. The [basement] was just like a pool with stairs.”

Ang’s 53-year-old teacher, Martha Suarez, was heartbroken when she arrived Thursday morning for her daily session with her little pupil. She said, “The baby was so cute. Just a happy boy, very nice family... They didn't call me, they didn't cancel me, so I was coming as usual. This is too hard for me.” 

Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday, September 4, that New York needs a “new set of ground rules” for people living in basement apartments. He told MSNBC, “We need a plan to evacuate folks who live in basements when we have extreme rain and flooding.” But Blasio did not announce a state of emergency despite the death of seven people whose remains were found in basements.

During a press conference, he added: “Things that we were told were once in a century are now happening regularly. We have to change what we do across the board. It's not just us - we saw the destruction in Louisiana, we see what's happening with the wildfire. We all understand this is coming from a climate crisis and they are creating brutal problems - things that come on with a speed and ferocity that we have never seen before.”