Celebrity chef Rachel Ray faces yet another heartbreaking situation after her New York City apartment got destroyed by flood due to Hurricane Ida. This devastating news came a year after her home in Lake Luzerne went up in flames.
Hurricane Ida floods destroy Ray’s NYC apartment
Ray shares her New York City apartment with her husband, John Cusimano. She posted photos of what is left of their home on her Twitter account. “This is what’s left of our house, today. Sharing our story + what we’ve learned in a very unusual @rachaelrayshow premiere. Thank you to all our first responders, viewers + friends for their unending support. We are very grateful and mindful of how fortunate we are in many ways.”
Just when the couple finished the work on their NYC apartment, the hurricane destroyed it. In a statement to People, Ray said: “Like, literally every speaker in the ceiling, the fireplace, every seam in the wall … It was like the apartment just literally melted, like in ‘Wicked’ or something.”
Ray said that she and John had to wait a week before a remediation team could visit the damaged house and assess the loss from the flooding. But then, things took a turn for the worse, once again.
“[The remediation team] comes in. They put up their fans and their humidifiers. And then, they make a hole in the wall and break the main water pipe and flood the entire building down to the first floor, from our apartment on the sixth floor,” Ray said, adding: “The people that we were waiting for, the cavalry, burst this pipe and made everything worse.”
“Tell me you would not feel like a kicked can,” she added.
Despite the setbacks, Ray said she and Cusimano “have so much to be grateful for,” as the ongoing pandemic is a time of hardship for so many.
The First Tragic Incident
The home she lost last year went up in flames because of a chimney fire. They have had the house for 15 years and lost almost all their belongings like cookbooks and photo albums. Ray, Cusimano, and their pets were able to escape unharmed.
In her show last year, Ray shared, “On August 9th, my house burned. 15 years of memories; 40 years of notebooks, drawings, thoughts, my life’s work. It took about one hour for this house to come down – and in my mind, it took decades before it was even built. In the years that I lived here, I learned an awful lot. In the few weeks since it burned I think I’ve learned even more. Today we’re going to share what’s left of our home with you.”
Accordingly, they were preparing dinner and made a fire in their fireplace. Later, a neighbor alerted them that their roof is on fire.
Also Read: IRS Update: If You Are A Victim Of Hurricane Ida, Know When You Can File Your Tax Return
