The two men who died in flooded basements as intense rain pounded New York City on Thursday were handymen in their respective buildings – familiar faces who could be called on to help out in a pinch, residents and neighbors said.
As the waters rose, a 39-year-old man rushed back into his cramped subterranean apartment in a building on Kingston Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn to try to save one of his beloved pit bulls. Neighbors said they only knew him as Aaron. Multiple outlets identified the victim as Aaron Akaberi.
On West 175th Street in Washington Heights, Juan Carlos Montoya Hernandez, 43, went down to the boiler room of an apartment building to fix the electricity when it sputtered out.
Neither Akaberi nor Hernandez survived. Neighbors at both buildings were trying to piece together what had happened.
“I was with him earlier in the day yesterday before it started, before the weather changed, we were just talking, just laughing, joking around,” said Michael Caban, who was friends with Akaberi. “I’m completely confused [about] what took place down there. I hope that they do a deeper investigation. How did he get stuck?”
A photo of Juan Carlos Montoya Hernandez, 43, outside the Washington Heights building where he died during heavy rain.
Brittany Kriegstein
The rooms where both men died had flooded before, according to residents who spoke to Gothamist. All agreed that they were not safe during an intense storm. City officials said 3 inches of rain fell over two hours on Thursday afternoon. One inch of rain fell during a particularly intense 10-minute period.
Kenneth Oates, who for six years owned the Kingston Avenue building where Akaberi died, said he stopped renting out the basement apartment to new tenants due to the flooding. Records show Oates sold the building to BH Mazal LLC in April. Efforts to reach the new landlord were unsuccessful.
Oates said water from nearby streets rolled down to the intersection of Kingston Avenue and Rutland Road during Thursday afternoon’s deluge. Neighbors said Akaberi helped with maintenance around the building, though he wasn’t known as the super.
Akaberi’s dingy basement apartment became a death trap on Thursday. Neighbors said he managed to retrieve one of his beloved pit bulls, but didn’t make it out with the second.
A Gothamist reporter entered the apartment on Friday morning and observed exposed pipes, utilities and wiring in the cramped, windowless unit. Leaves were still stuck to the ceiling – a sign that the dwelling had been completely inundated.
Caban said he wasn’t surprised that Akaberi went in to save his dogs.
“He would have went in if the place, God forbid, was on fire,” Caban said. “Everything was about his animals, his two dogs, you know … that was his life.
At the Washington Heights building where Montoya Hernandez died, a crew was pumping so much water out of the basement utility room that it flooded an outdoor alleyway. The crew declined to comment about what happened.
“He was like family to us,” said Maciel Abreu, an upstairs neighbor who said Montoya Hernandez helped her with daily errands during her recovery from a leg injury.
“I called him every day, and he took my kids down to the bus at 7 a.m. He was really helpful around here, really loved,” she said.
Neighbors taped a photo of him to a brick wall alongside a marigold flower, a traditional symbol of mourning in his native Mexico.
“Around 4 o’clock, all the lights [in] the hall went off,” said resident Jose Morillo, adding that Montoya Hernandez, as the building superintendent’s assistant, likely went down to try to help. “I think he touched one of the electrical wires, and I think he died from that.”
“Anytime it rains a lot, it floods in the basement. And nobody does nothing about it, and look at what happened,” Morillo said.
Montoya Hernandez had children in Mexico and in the Bronx, Abreu said.
The entrance to the basement apartment where a man died during heavy rain in Brooklyn.
Brittany Kriegstein
Alma Realty Corp, listed as the owner of 701 West 175th Street where Montoya Hernandez died, did not immediately comment.
The city’s Department of Buildings said it was still investigating both incidents. The DOB did not immediately provide information about whether the basement apartment in the three-story Kingston Avenue building was legal.
Just last week, the DOB launched an online application for homeowners who want to turn their basements, attics and similar spaces into legal rental units – part of an effort to alleviate New York’s housing crunch.
The legalization effort comes with new safety rules that were created in July. The proposed units must have at least two exits and a sprinkler system, and the city will prohibit basement apartments in flood-prone areas.
Oates said he was with Akaberi and his surviving dog just moments before Akaberi ran back into the flooding apartment to try to save his other pet.
“I was standing right here, he went down there for his dog – the other dog was standing here with me. He never came back,” Oates said.
Charles Lane contributed reporting.
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