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Flood Form

NYC Flood Map  ·  Queens

Queens Flood Map

Stormwater is the most widespread flood exposure in Queens: 41% of its 324,158 lots rate Moderate or High. Next is sewer backup, at 22%. Below, what drives each kind of flooding here, from city and federal sources and Flood Form's parcel data.

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Astoria (BB-029): 47% Moderate or High for stormwaterAstoria (BB-031): 45% Moderate or High for stormwaterAuburndale (TI-010): 39% Moderate or High for stormwaterCambria Heights (JAM-005): 32% Moderate or High for stormwaterClearview (TI-023): 40% Moderate or High for stormwaterCollege Point (TI-014): 4% Moderate or High for stormwaterCollege Point (TI-015): 11% Moderate or High for stormwaterCollege Point (TI-016): 40% Moderate or High for stormwaterCollege Point (TI-018): 27% Moderate or High for stormwaterCollege Point (TI-019): 29% Moderate or High for stormwaterCollege Point (TI-020): 7% Moderate or High for stormwaterCorona (BB-008): 33% Moderate or High for stormwaterDitmars (BB-034): 42% Moderate or High for stormwaterDitmars (BB-035): 36% Moderate or High for stormwaterDitmars (BB-036): 10% Moderate or High for stormwaterEast Elmhurst (BB-007): 15% Moderate or High for stormwaterFlushing (TI-022): 46% Moderate or High for stormwaterForest Hills (BB-006): 42% Moderate or High for stormwaterHallets Point (BB-030): 60% Moderate or High for stormwaterHallets Point (BB-032): 8% Moderate or High for stormwaterHollis Hills (TI-008): 32% Moderate or High for stormwaterJackson Heights (BB-005): 46% Moderate or High for stormwaterLong Island City (BB-013): 64% Moderate or High for stormwaterLong Island City (BB-021): 62% Moderate or High for stormwaterLong Island City (BB-023): 74% Moderate or High for stormwaterMaspeth (NCQ-077): 43% Moderate or High for stormwaterMurray Hill (TI-011): 40% Moderate or High for stormwaterQueensbridge (BB-024): 67% Moderate or High for stormwaterQueensbridge (BB-027): 58% Moderate or High for stormwaterRidgewood (NCB-083): 39% Moderate or High for stormwaterSouth Ozone Park (JAM-003): 50% Moderate or High for stormwaterSouth Ozone Park (JAM-003a): 42% Moderate or High for stormwaterSouth Richmond Hill (JAM-006): 59% Moderate or High for stormwaterSteinway (BB-002): 71% Moderate or High for stormwaterSteinway (BB-003): 32% Moderate or High for stormwaterSteinway (BB-041): 29% Moderate or High for stormwaterSunnyside (BB-009): 52% Moderate or High for stormwaterSunnyside (BB-026): 63% Moderate or High for stormwaterSunnyside (NCQ-029): 21% Moderate or High for stormwaterWhitestone (TI-003): 34% Moderate or High for stormwaterWhitestone (TI-004): 16% Moderate or High for stormwaterWoodside (BB-028): 38% 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 Queens still get a lot-by-lot rating in every Flood Form report.

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Flood exposure across Queens

The share of 324,158 lots Flood Form rates Moderate or High for each type of flooding, on the same Minimal to High scale as an individual report.

41%

Stormwater exposure: Moderate or High

22%

Sewer Backup exposure: Moderate or High

18%

Groundwater exposure: Moderate or High

7%

Coastal exposure: Moderate or High

3.8%

Lots in FEMA's 1% annual-chance floodplain

7%

Lots inside the 2012 Hurricane Sandy flood area

62.2%

Lots draining to a combined-sewer outfall

1.63%

Lots with a DEP-confirmed sewer backup on record

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

Why Queens floods

Stormwater

In Flood Form's data, 41% of lots in Queens rate Moderate or High for stormwater.

Most Queens sewers were built for about 1.5 inches of rain an hour, and much of Southeast Queens still lacks a fully built sewer system: post-war development outpaced the sewers, and DEP's program to finish them has grown to $2.6 billion.[1][2]

Queens took the most Ida damage of any borough, about 40% of the city's total and more than 13,000 buildings, concentrated in northern, eastern and central Queens.[3]

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.[1]

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.[1][3]

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.[4]

Sewer backup

In Flood Form's data, 22% of lots in Queens rate Moderate or High for sewer backup, and 62% drain to a combined-sewer outfall.

DEP names Queens among the boroughs where older combined sewers fall short of today's design standard.[5]

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.[5]

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.[5]

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.[5]

Groundwater

In Flood Form's data, 18% of lots in Queens rate Moderate or High for groundwater, and 8.9% sit near a buried historic stream or pond.

In Southeast Queens the water table rose after decades of well pumping for the local water supply ended; USGS data reported by THE CITY put it about 40 feet higher in 2013 than its low point in the 1970s and 1980s.[6][7]

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.[7]

Coastal flooding

In Flood Form's data, 7% of lots in Queens rate Moderate or High for coastal flooding. 3.8% fall in FEMA's 1% annual-chance floodplain, and 7% were inside the area Hurricane Sandy flooded in 2012.

Tidal flooding is most pronounced around Jamaica Bay, in Broad Channel and Hamilton Beach, and parts of Queens face the open Atlantic.[7]

Coastal flooding comes mainly from storm surge, while tidal flooding can happen on ordinary high tides without a storm.[7]

FEMA flood maps show coastal and river flooding, not the rainfall and sewer flooding behind most basement deaths in Ida.[8]

Neighborhoods in Queens with the most stormwater exposure

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

All 42 Queens sewersheds

Questions about flooding in Queens

Is Queens in a flood zone?

3.8% of lots in Queens fall in FEMA's 1% annual-chance floodplain, the "flood zone" on federal maps, and 7% 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, 41% of lots here rate Moderate or High for stormwater.

Why does Queens flood?

The most widespread exposure in Queens is stormwater, with 41% of lots rated Moderate or High, followed by sewer backup at 22%. The remaining shares: groundwater 18%, 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 Queens neighborhoods flood the most?

In Flood Form's data, the sewersheds in Queens with the largest share of lots rated Moderate or High for stormwater are Long Island City (BB-023), Steinway (BB-002) and Queensbridge (BB-024). 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 Queens 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 Department of Environmental Protection, Increasing Stormwater Resilience in the Face of Climate Change: Our Long Term Vision (2022).
  2. [2] NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Southeast Queens Reporting Requirements (Local Law 56 of 2023) (2025).
  3. [3] NYC Emergency Management, Record Rain in NYC: The Impacts of Post-Tropical Cyclone Ida (Damage Analysis Report) (2024).
  4. [4] NYC Comptroller, Is New York City Ready for Rain? An Investigation into the City's Flash Flood Preparedness (April 2024).
  5. [5] NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Protecting Your Home: Tools to Prevent Basement Sewer Backups and an Evaluation of Backwater Valves (December 2024).
  6. [6] THE CITY, Rising Groundwater Threatens New York City. Researchers Study How Much. (January 2023).
  7. [7] NYC Emergency Management, NYC Hazard Mitigation Plan: Flooding Hazard Profile (current edition).
  8. [8] 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.

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