PICTURED: Father, 50, and his two-year-old son who drowned in NYC flash floods

A family-of-three who all drowned after becoming trapped in their basement apartment during flash flooding in New York City overnight have been formally identified. 

Ang Lama, 50, Mingma Sherpa, 48, and their two-year-old son, Ang (full name Lobsang), were found dead inside the Woodside, Queens property on Thursday morning.   

Water from the flash flood – caused by remnants of Hurricane Ida – began pouring into the family’s basement apartment around 9.30pm Wednesday, as Sherpa frantically dialed her upstairs neighbor for help. 

‘The water is coming in right now… The water coming in from the window!’ Sherpa purportedly yelled down the phone to Choi Sledge, who lives on the complex’s third floor. 

Choi told The New York Times that she urged the family to ‘get out’ and make their way upstairs. When Choi tried to call back minutes later there was no answer. 

The basement apartment features just one door, and occupants can only leave by climbing an external flight of stairs. 

Deborah Torres, who lives on the first floor of the complex, says she believes the staircase would have been cascading with rushing water, making it impossible for the family to escape.  

‘I think the pressure of the water was too strong that they couldn’t open the door [to get out and up the stairs] ‘ Torres told The New York Daily News. ‘The [basement] was just like a pool with stairs.’ 

The windows of the property are barred, meaning it was also unfeasible to escape through them.  

Lama and Sherpa were both immigrants from Nepal.  

Ang Lama, 50, and his two-year-old son (pictured) drowned inside their basement apartment on Wednesday night 

The basement apartment features only one door, which can only be accessed by going down an external flight of stairs (pictured) 

The windows of the property are barred, meaning it was also unfeasible to escape through them (pictured)

Ang Lama, 50, and Mingma Sherpa, 48, lived with their son in the basement apartment of the three-story apartment complex in Woodside, Queens 

The bodies of the three victims were removed from the apartment on Thursday morning 

The apartment complex is the last building at the bottom of a street that is on a significant downward slope. 

Most of the homes have downward slanting garages, with one neighbor telling DailyMail.com that the area feels like being ‘in a valley built between two hills’. 

The flooding was so severe that it also caused damage to the apartment on the first floor, where Torres lives with her daughter. 

‘It was so fast. My daughter started to scream… when I came out from my room the water was already on my feet,’ Torres told The Daily News. 

‘My sofa was floating. This has never happened before.’

On Thursday afternoon, tributes began pouring in for the family-of-three after their names were released to the public. 

Martha Suarez, who taught two-year-old Ang, told The Daily News: ‘He was so cute… Just a happy boy, very nice family.’

Neighbors from surrounding apartment complexes told the Associated Press that the floods have left their homes severely waterlogged.  

The subterranean entrance to the family’s apartment is pictured following the flash flood on Thursday 

A stroller is seen sitting abandoned outside the home on Thursday. Tributes are now coming in 

The apartment complex is the last building at the bottom of a street that is on a significant downward slope. Most of the homes have downward slanting garages, with one neighbor telling DailyMail.com that the area felt like being ‘in a valley built between two hills’

One neighbor showed the inside of his sodden basement apartment, proving just how high the floodwaters rose. 

Felix Delapuente’s basement bathroom was covered in dirt and grime after the water was finally drained from the premises. 

The Sherpa-Lama family are among at least 26 people who were killed across the Northeast on Wednesday night as remnants of Hurricane Ida battered the region. 

Nine people were killed in New York City, including others who also drowned inside their basement apartments. 

One neighbor showed the inside of his sodden basement apartment, proving just how high the floodwaters rose

Felix Delapuente’s basement bathroom was left covered in dirt and grim after water was finally drained from the premises Thursday

Other New York City victims include Roberto Bravo, 66; Phamatee Ramskriet, 43 and Khrishah Ramskriet, 22, 86-year-old Yue Lian Chen and Darlene Hsu, 48.

Meanwhile, 14 people died in New Jersey – nine were swept away in cars that became submerged in the water and five died in an apartment complex in Elizabeth. Three people from one family – a 72-year-old woman, her 71-year-old husband and their 38-year-old son – died along with their 33-year-old female neighbor in the Oakwood Plaza Apartments in New Jersey.

A 19-year-old man died in Maryland when the Rock Creek River burst its banks and flooded nearby homes. Three people died in Pennsylvania.  

Austin Ferdock drinks a beer while floating in floodwater that continues to rise over the submerged Vine Street Expressway, Interstate 676, following a huge storm caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida on September 2, 2021 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Residents are surrounded by floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Manville, NJ, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. A stunned U.S. East Coast has woken up to a rising death toll, surging rivers and destruction after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain

Residents canoe through floodwater in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Manville, NJ, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021

Roads are covered in floodwaters caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida which brought drenching rain, flash floods and tornadoes to parts of the northeast in New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S., September 2, 2021

Train tracks are flooded in the Bronx following a night of heavy wind and rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ida on September 2, 2021 in New York City. Multiple fatalities have been reported in the region after the storm passed through, causing massive flooding and a widespread disruption of subway service

HOBOKEN, NJ – SEPTEMBER 2: A man falls off his bike into a flooded street the morning after the remnants of Hurricane Ida drenched the New York City and New Jersey area on September 2, 2021 in Hoboken, New Jersey

Roads are covered in floodwaters caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida which brought drenching rain, flash floods and tornadoes to parts of the northeast in New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S., September 2, 2021

An abandon car sits in standing flood waters on a residential street, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021, Mamaroneck, New York

A city underwater: 145th Street station on Wednesday night after Hurricane Ida brought nearly 6 inches of rain to New York City – 3.5inches in an hour – the single highest rainfall ever recorded. Nine people in the city died 

The scenes on the subway last night which remained open until 11pm – after bodies had been found in Brooklyn and Queens 

More people have now been found dead in New York City from Ida than in Louisiana, which had days to prepare for the storm. 

New Yorkers are furious that Mayor Bill de Blasio did not give more warning of what was to come. 

Now, a massive clean-up operation is underway across the tri-state area and rescue teams in Pennsylvania are still going door-to-door in boats looking for people to save.  

New York City officials and President Biden on Thursday blamed the catastrophe on climate change. 

‘This is yet another reminder that extreme storms and the climate crisis are here,’ Biden said in an address on Hurricane Ida’s devastation. 

‘Floods are going to happen with increasing frequency,’ he continued.

‘For us, this isn’t about politics. Hurricane Ida didn’t care if you were a Democrat or Republican.

‘This destruction is everywhere.’

A flood damaged residence is seen at the Oakwood Plaza Apartments in the aftermath of flooding that was caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida which brought drenching rain, flash floods and tornadoes to parts of the northeast in Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S., September 2, 2021

A food delivery driver stands on the saddle of his bicycle outside Soho Finest Deli on the corner of Grand Street and Thompson Street in Soho on Wednesday night to avoid the flood water rising up around him 

QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY: The inside of an MTA bus was submerged as a driver ploughed through 3-4 feet of rain

A food delivery driver in New York City wades through knee-deep flood water on Wednesday night as Ida slams the city 

Ida was anticipated in the south as a ferocious hurricane that is typical of this time of year. It downgraded to a tropical storm before making its way towards the Northeast and was not expected to bring as much rain or tornadoes 

Rescue teams were going to people’s homes in dinghies on Thursday morning in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania 

Biden said that when the Senate returns to Washington he would direct them to pass the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation plan as part of his ‘Build Back Better’ agenda.

‘Experiencing all this flooding in NYC right now and thinking about all the politicians who told me that pursuing a Green New Deal to adapt our nat’l infrastructure to climate change is ‘unrealistic’ & ‘too expensive.” 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, N.Y., wrote on Twitter. ‘As if doing too little is the responsible, adult thing to do?’

‘Members of both parties engage in misleading rhetoric and funny math to convince the public we are addressing climate change more than we are – & that includes parts of the current infrastructure plan,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘We need a Green New Deal now.’

‘Global warming is upon us not a coincidence,’ Sen. Chuck Schumer, N.Y., said in a press conference Thursday. ‘It’s going to get worse and worse and worse.’ The majority leader used the moment to push for the infrastructure deal and budget reconciliation plan making their way through Congress.

‘That’s why it’s so imperative to pass the two bills, the infrastructure bill and the budget reconciliation bill.’

‘Woe is us if we don’t recognize that these changes are due to climate change. Woe is us if we don’t do something soon,’ he said.

The first warnings about Ida came at around 7pm on Wednesday and by 10pm, NYPD officers were recovering dead bodies from basement homes. 

At a press conference on Thursday, he said officials were caught off guard by the amount of rain that fell. He had predicted between three and six inches to fall in the entire day, he said, but that much fell in just one hour in some parts of the city. 

‘We anticipated three and six inches over the course of the whole day and that turned into the biggest single rainfall in NYC history with almost no warning,’ he said.  

The National Weather Service’s office in New York issued a Flash Flood Emergency for New York City for the first time ever – warning people to seek high ground immediately. 

The ‘Emergency’ warning is the highest level of flood alert – indicating immediate and significant threats to life and property. 

‘This particular warning for NYC is the second time we’ve ever issued a Flash Flood Emergency. (It’s the first one for NYC). 

‘The first time we’ve issued a Flash Flood Emergency was for Northeast New Jersey an hour ago,’ the agency tweeted.

Across New York and New Jersey, there are now 85,000 people without power, including 25,000 in New York City. 

Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla told CNN the destruction is on par with Hurricane Irene which killed 12 New Jersey residents in 2011.

She said: ‘We experienced 6.5 inches of rain in an eight-hour period.