Looks like there won't be a plague after all:
In fact, the flood may end up as a net positive, as far as we people are concerned. "Flooding often displaces rats but also drowns young rats in their burrows and can reduce the rat population," [NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene official Sam] Miller says. As for the rats that did escape an untimely, watery death, Miller insists that "no research has demonstrated an increased health risk from flushed rats from underground."
But:
If the flooding happened after dominant rats took to the surface and drove the weaklings underground to die, New York’s rat population may have just gotten stronger.
Happy Halloween.
The Dish 