Skip to main content
Flood Form

NYC Flood Map  ·  Manhattan

Manhattan Flood Map

Stormwater is the most widespread flood exposure in Manhattan: 47% of its 42,075 lots rate Moderate or High. Next is sewer backup, at 10%. Below, what drives each kind of flooding here, from city and federal sources and Flood Form's parcel data.

See where your property stands

Free. Takes about 60 seconds.

Chelsea (NR-024): 75% Moderate or High for stormwaterChelsea (NR-025): 91% Moderate or High for stormwaterChelsea (NR-026): 62% Moderate or High for stormwaterChelsea (NR-027): 58% Moderate or High for stormwaterChelsea (NR-049): 36% Moderate or High for stormwaterChinatown (NCM-050): 46% Moderate or High for stormwaterEast Harlem (WI-023): 50% Moderate or High for stormwaterEast Harlem (WI-025): 31% Moderate or High for stormwaterEast Harlem (WI-031): 55% Moderate or High for stormwaterEast Harlem (WI-035): 63% Moderate or High for stormwaterEast Harlem (WI-037): 32% Moderate or High for stormwaterEast Village (NCM-020): 57% Moderate or High for stormwaterEast Village (NCM-052): 58% Moderate or High for stormwaterFinancial District (NCM-067): 63% Moderate or High for stormwaterFinancial District (NCM-069): 72% Moderate or High for stormwaterFinancial District (NCM-078): 89% Moderate or High for stormwaterFlatiron (NCM-087): 20% Moderate or High for stormwaterFlatiron (NR-023): 62% Moderate or High for stormwaterGramercy (NCM-046): 83% Moderate or High for stormwaterGramercy (NCM-049): 53% Moderate or High for stormwaterHarlem (NR-043): 51% Moderate or High for stormwaterHarlem (WI-024): 33% Moderate or High for stormwaterHarlem (WI-038): 30% Moderate or High for stormwaterHarlem (WI-045): 25% Moderate or High for stormwaterHarlem (WI-046): 35% Moderate or High for stormwaterHell's Kitchen (NR-033): 58% Moderate or High for stormwaterKingsbridge (WI-078): 24% Moderate or High for stormwaterLenox Hill (NCM-005): 38% Moderate or High for stormwaterLenox Hill (WI-003): 55% Moderate or High for stormwaterLower East Side (NCM-028): 57% Moderate or High for stormwaterLower East Side (NCM-042): 47% Moderate or High for stormwaterLower East Side (NCM-057): 63% Moderate or High for stormwaterManhattan Valley (NR-040): 33% Moderate or High for stormwaterMidtown (NCM-037): 54% Moderate or High for stormwaterMidtown South (NCM-045): 55% Moderate or High for stormwaterMorningside Heights (NR-041): 39% Moderate or High for stormwaterMurray Hill (NC-017): 61% Moderate or High for stormwaterMurray Hill (NCM-038): 80% Moderate or High for stormwaterMurray Hill (NCM-041): 46% Moderate or High for stormwaterSoHo (NCM-075): 64% Moderate or High for stormwaterSugar Hill (NR-002): 38% Moderate or High for stormwaterSugar Hill (NR-056): 18% Moderate or High for stormwaterTribeca (NCM-073): 55% Moderate or High for stormwaterTribeca (NCM-074): 27% Moderate or High for stormwaterTurtle Bay (NCM-032): 46% Moderate or High for stormwaterTurtle Bay (NCM-034): 66% Moderate or High for stormwaterTwo Bridges (NCM-063): 45% Moderate or High for stormwaterUpper East Side (NCM-036): 56% Moderate or High for stormwaterUpper East Side (WI-008): 31% Moderate or High for stormwaterUpper West Side (NR-037): 31% Moderate or High for stormwaterUpper West Side (NR-038): 35% Moderate or High for stormwaterWashington Heights (NR-003): 30% Moderate or High for stormwaterWashington Heights (NR-004): 49% Moderate or High for stormwaterWashington Heights (NR-006): 53% Moderate or High for stormwaterWashington Heights (NR-017): 79% Moderate or High for stormwaterWashington Heights (WI-051): 36% Moderate or High for stormwaterWashington Heights (WI-052): 33% Moderate or High for stormwaterWest Village (NC-081): 43% Moderate or High for stormwaterWest Village (NCM-076): 50% Moderate or High for stormwaterWest Village (NR-020): 59% Moderate or High for stormwaterYorkville (WI-011): 33% Moderate or High for stormwaterYorkville (WI-012): 26% Moderate or High for stormwaterYorkville (WI-015): 30% Moderate or High for stormwaterYorkville (WI-016): 25% Moderate or High for stormwater
Stormwater, Moderate or High0–15%15–30%30–45%45–60%60%+

Shaded areas are the combined-sewer sewersheds with their own page; select one to open it. Unshaded parts of Manhattan still get a lot-by-lot rating in every Flood Form report.

Flood alerts and conditions in Manhattan today

Loading current conditions…

Flood exposure across Manhattan

The share of 42,075 lots Flood Form rates Moderate or High for each type of flooding, on the same Minimal to High scale as an individual report.

47%

Stormwater exposure: Moderate or High

10%

Sewer Backup exposure: Moderate or High

7%

Groundwater exposure: Moderate or High

7%

Coastal exposure: Moderate or High

4.6%

Lots in FEMA's 1% annual-chance floodplain

6.3%

Lots inside the 2012 Hurricane Sandy flood area

99.4%

Lots draining to a combined-sewer outfall

0.68%

Lots with a DEP-confirmed sewer backup on record

Computed from Flood Form’s NYC parcel data as of October 19, 2026

Why Manhattan floods

Stormwater

In Flood Form's data, 47% of lots in Manhattan rate Moderate or High for stormwater.

Manhattan took about 2% of the city's Ida damage, the least of any borough.[1]

City sewers are built to drain roughly 1.75 inches of rain an hour, and some older ones less: before 1977 each borough set its own standard.[2]

Hurricane Ida brought 3.15 inches in a single hour to Central Park in 2021. More than half of the damage it caused fell outside both FEMA floodplains and the City's own stormwater flood scenarios.[2][1]

Flooding doesn't always follow the heaviest rain: in the September 2023 storm, parts of southern Queens and coastal Staten Island flooded badly with little intense rainfall, which the Comptroller tied to gaps in drainage.[3]

Sewer backup

In Flood Form's data, 10% of lots in Manhattan rate Moderate or High for sewer backup, and 99% drain to a combined-sewer outfall.

About 60% of the city's sewer system is combined, carrying both sewage and stormwater in one pipe. When intense rain exceeds pipe capacity, that mix can back up through basement drains and fixtures.[4]

DEP reports that rain-driven backups are now the most common kind, overtaking backups from grease and wipes, and that about 74,000 properties, most of them one- and two-family homes, are vulnerable in a storm of 1.75 inches per hour.[4]

Homes whose drains and fixtures sit below the nearby sewer, such as basements reached by a downward-sloping driveway, are the most likely to back up.[4]

Groundwater

In Flood Form's data, 7% of lots in Manhattan rate Moderate or High for groundwater, and 29% sit near a buried historic stream or pond.

The City's hazard mitigation plan names groundwater flooding a particular concern where neighborhoods were built while pumping held the water table down, and notes parts of Brooklyn and Queens where groundwater sits less than 10 feet below the surface. It adds that research on the problem is at an early stage.[5]

Coastal flooding

In Flood Form's data, 7% of lots in Manhattan rate Moderate or High for coastal flooding. 4.6% fall in FEMA's 1% annual-chance floodplain, and 6.3% were inside the area Hurricane Sandy flooded in 2012.

Surge is the borough's main documented flood exposure, reaching into dense commercial districts; the East Side and Lower Manhattan coastal projects respond to it.[5]

Coastal flooding comes mainly from storm surge, while tidal flooding can happen on ordinary high tides without a storm.[5]

FEMA flood maps show coastal and river flooding, not the rainfall and sewer flooding behind most basement deaths in Ida.[6]

Neighborhoods in Manhattan with the most stormwater exposure

Combined-sewer sewersheds in Manhattan, ranked by the share of lots rated Moderate or High for stormwater.

All 64 Manhattan sewersheds

Questions about flooding in Manhattan

Is Manhattan in a flood zone?

4.6% of lots in Manhattan fall in FEMA's 1% annual-chance floodplain, the "flood zone" on federal maps, and 6.3% were inside the area Hurricane Sandy flooded. Federal maps cover coastal and river flooding, not rainfall: in Hurricane Ida, more than half of all damage fell outside FEMA floodplains and the City's stormwater scenarios. In Flood Form's data, 47% of lots here rate Moderate or High for stormwater.

Why does Manhattan flood?

The most widespread exposure in Manhattan is stormwater, with 47% of lots rated Moderate or High, followed by sewer backup at 10%. The remaining shares: groundwater 7%, coastal flooding 7%. Flash flooding happens when rain falls faster than the local sewers can drain it, and DEP reports that rain-driven backups are now the most common kind of sewer backup.

Which Manhattan neighborhoods flood the most?

In Flood Form's data, the sewersheds in Manhattan with the largest share of lots rated Moderate or High for stormwater are Chelsea (NR-025), Financial District (NCM-078) and Gramercy (NCM-046). That ranking covers only the combined-sewer areas with their own page; every lot elsewhere is still rated in its own Flood Form report.

How can I check flooding at my Manhattan address?

Enter your address for a free Flood Form. It rates the lot for stormwater, sewer backup, groundwater, and coastal flooding on a Minimal to High scale and recommends measures suited to it.

Sources

  1. [1] NYC Emergency Management, Record Rain in NYC: The Impacts of Post-Tropical Cyclone Ida (Damage Analysis Report) (2024).
  2. [2] NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Increasing Stormwater Resilience in the Face of Climate Change: Our Long Term Vision (2022).
  3. [3] NYC Comptroller, Is New York City Ready for Rain? An Investigation into the City's Flash Flood Preparedness (April 2024).
  4. [4] NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Protecting Your Home: Tools to Prevent Basement Sewer Backups and an Evaluation of Backwater Valves (December 2024).
  5. [5] NYC Emergency Management, NYC Hazard Mitigation Plan: Flooding Hazard Profile (current edition).
  6. [6] Scientific American, Deaths from Hurricane Ida Expose Flaws in FEMA Flood Maps (September 2021).

Bold sentences come from Flood Form’s parcel data and describe exposure across the borough, not the conditions at any one property. A Flood Form report rates an individual lot.

Other boroughs