Jamaica Bay Boils Over Like Some Kind Of Natural Disaster Flick

Parts of Queens were under water yesterday when the tide, wind and full moon combined in a special way to flood parts of Howard Beach and the Rockaways:

A new moon and persistent eastern winds made water levels rise more than 6 feet above their normal levels, submerging some low-lying areas in more than 3 feet of water.

. . .

While the water levels receded in Howard Beach around midday, later in the afternoon parts of the ocean still filled a five-block stretch along Beach 72nd St. in the Sommerville section of Far Rockaway.

“Water is gonna come; it’s going to seek its own level,” said Joe Poehlman, 52, who has lived on the peninsula all his life and recalled struggling to hold back flood water in his family’s basement as a child.

One block away, Michelle Miely, 39, waded in water up to her ankles as she returned from work to her Almeda Ave. home.

“I’ll take a shower, bath, wash it off,” she said with a shrug. “This has been an ongoing problem.”

A seagull was perched on a nearby roof amid the choppy water in the otherwise lifeless street. It was squawking, stretching and seemingly enjoying its new habitat.

City officials responded quickly to the problem:

The city started getting calls about water-main breaks in the morning, but when Department of Environmental Protection agents arrived, they realized that the salty water was actually coming from the rising Jamaica Bay.

“I’m not aware of any government agency that can help when something like that happens,” said DEP spokesman Ian Michaels.