In tennis, if something bad happens in the middle of a point — say, a cat runs across the court — then everyone involved agrees to “play a let.”
Suffice it to say, the United States Tennis Association would not mind playing a let over how it handled its evening session of tennis on Wednesday night. With a storm packing historic levels of rainfall, and heavy winds approaching the New York metropolitan area, the U.S.T.A. did nothing.
Even though the New York Mets, who play on the other side of the railroad tracks, canceled their Wednesday game on Tuesday night, the U.S.T.A. did not cancel its scheduled matches or tell fans to stay home.
The U.S.T.A. has spent hundreds of millions of dollars during the past decade renovating the tennis center, including putting roofs on its two main stadiums, so it could keep at least some matches playing in inclement weather.
That is what the Police Department told tennis officials was on the way at a 4:30 p.m. meeting: “heavy rain.”
As the storm was zeroing in on New York City, nearly 22,000 people descended on the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, many of them arriving by public transportation, even though cancellations of matches on field courts began at 5:30 p.m., and at 6:10 p.m. all matches on uncovered courts were postponed.
The U.S.T.A. opened the grounds to evening session ticket holders at 6:30 p.m. An hour later, it was clear the strength of the storm had far surpassed what the tennis officials had thought.
By the early evening, thunderous rain pounded the roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the wind blew rain sideways into Louis Armstrong Stadium, forcing officials to stop play there at 8:15 p.m. Shortly after 9 p.m. the stadium was deemed unplayable and fans were sent into Ashe.
Since the roof of the stadium was closed, fans were not asked to leave.
Chris Widmaier, a spokesman for the U.S.T.A., said the organization conducts briefings twice a day with police and continuously tracks the weather and its potential impact on the tournament. “Yesterday the ongoing forecast called for heavy rains over the course of the late afternoon and into the night. The U.S.T.A. also conducts daily briefings with the N.Y.P.D. at 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The U.S.T.A. was not advised to cancel the evening session at these times.”
When the National Weather Service issued the first flash flood warning in New York City history, just before 9:30 p.m., officials decided to continue play rather than send fans out into the storm. Before long, rail and subway service was severely delayed or suspended and roads around the tennis center had become flooded, though the No. 7 train ultimately did provide service through the end of the matches.
At least eight U.S.T.A. employees spent the night at the tennis center. Countless fans made treacherous journeys home.
Lynn Moffat, 65, of Sleepy Hollow stayed late into the night, and watched as everyone around her got messages and phone calls from people saying: “‘The roads are impassable. There’s trees down everywhere, there’s flooding everywhere, don’t go out,’” she said.
Ms. Moffat attended the match with her brother, and said that after pressuring tennis officials to let them stay until the rain cleared, they made a two-hour trip through Manhattan to get a friend home. “I’ve never seen devastation like what I saw last night,” she said. “I’ve been through 9/11. I’ve been through snow storms. You would see dozens and dozens of cars all banged up and turned around or underwater, I mean it was just phenomenal.”
Rit Bottorf, 38, of Prospect Heights was also at Arthur Ashe Stadium with his mother. Mr. Bottorf said that once the 7 train was running again, they made it to Times Square just as trains stopped running. “There were people just like, sitting and laying on the ground because there was no train service, they had no way to get home,” he said. “I was able to get an Uber at the last second for the last leg of the trip.”
Andrea Joffe, 38, stayed at the tennis center until 1:30 a.m.
She said she had no idea how bad the weather was because she hadn’t been outside for hours and had not received alerts.
When the tennis ended she ordered an Uber, but when she went outside to meet her driver, police told her the park was flooded and cars could not get through.
“They ended up putting us on a huge police bus and taking us outside the park,” she said. “Even then it was very difficult to find your Uber because around the space where we were waiting, everything was flooded.”
She ended up connecting with a driver and paying $300 to get to her home in White Plains, a journey that usually costs a third of that price. “It was such a scary ride. There were people driving the wrong way on the highway because it was flooded, and you couldn’t pass the cars that were abandoned,” she said. “I definitely prayed.”
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