Judy Huynh

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Rainproof NYC Flood Map

Rainproof NYC Flood Map with story raindrops and 311 sewer backup reports
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New Yorkers’ flood stories, on the record next to the city’s own data

My rolePlanned, designed and built it, from database to launch

When2026, launched 26 August

WithRebuild by Design and seven community partners

Run as5 phases, 140+ tracked issues

NowLive, and built to be reused beyond New York

01

The question

Where does New York actually flood, and does the city know about it? New Yorkers have made more than 113,000 flood reports to 311 since Hurricane Ida. The people living there know about far more: the hallway that takes on water, the basement that fills every storm. I wanted both on one map, so elected officials and city agencies could compare them.

311 only hears from people who call. Some blocks never do, and those are often the ones I most wanted on the map.

02

The hard part

Two things. First, a flood story is usually about someone’s home: an address, a photo of a room, sometimes a letter from an insurer or FEMA with a name on it. Collecting stories meant I was responsible for keeping people safe, not just for showing their stories.

Second, I had never built a map with a database behind it. Every map I had made before was a finished dataset I drew. This one had to take in new stories from strangers, every day, and not lose any of them.

What brokeTwo days after launch, a PDF attachment made the database reject a resident’s whole story. I fixed it, and now no change ships to the live map without a preview I have checked first.

03

How I ran it

I split it into phases, so each step could be tested before the next one depended on it.

  1. Through early August 2026Design with partnersBuilt it as a working prototype with the seven Rainproof Your Community partners, so changing it was still cheap.
  2. 17 AugustPractitioner reviewNine practitioners tested it and sent feedback sheets. I merged them into one list and turned it into 20 tracked fixes.
  3. 20 AugustSoft launchOpened it to more than 1,000 newsletter readers behind a password, after walking a full submission myself on a laptop and on a phone.
  4. 26 AugustPublic launchDays before the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Ida, with a press briefing featuring New Yorkers affected by flooding.
  5. After launchKeep it runningFixed what real use broke, and set it up so other places can reuse it.
An open resident story on the Rainproof map
An open story in Clinton Hill

I blurred every pin to about a block, close enough for a council member to act on, never close enough to find the house.

04

What I built

Residents drop a pin and share a flooding experience, an action their community took, or an idea for what should happen next, with photos, video or a voice note. Each story sits on top of 311 flood reports, FloodNet sensors, DEP green infrastructure and the city’s stormwater flood projections. Click anywhere, or search an address, to see what has happened within a 10 minute walk.

Built with the Rainproof Your Community partners: Brooklyn Level Up, FloodNet, Nonprofit Staten Island, Rainproof Flatbush, SQREJC, The City Sponge and The Dear Neighbor Project.

Explore the map and share a story →
Read the press release →

Mapbox GL JS · JavaScript · Supabase / PostgreSQL · GitHub Actions · NYC Open Data API · Cloudflare Turnstile · UX/UI Design · Privacy & Moderation Design · Project Management

I strip location data from photos on the resident’s own phone, so the exact spot never reaches us at all.

I wrote a one page review standard so moderation never depends on me, and anyone on the team can approve a story the same way.

05

What it found

  • New Yorkers made 113,481 flood reports to 311 in the five years since Hurricane Ida.
  • Nearly half, 55,791 (49.2%), were sewer backups, followed by clogged storm drains, water in the street and water in basements.
  • Queens Community Board 12 has had 7,250 flood reports, the most of any board in the city.
  • The deepest water recorded by FloodNet was 46.1 inches, at 183rd St and 90th Ave in Queens on 20 May 2026.
The Rainproof findings panel
The findings panel

06

Where it went next

  • 26 August 2026: launched with a newsletter to more than 1,000 people and a press briefing featuring New Yorkers directly affected by flooding.
  • 33 stories shared by residents across the city by September 2026.
  • June 2026: demoed it at a flood workshop with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and proposed a statewide version so legislators can read the flood stories from their own districts.

More work