NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Authorities have identified the two men who died in flooded basements in New York City on Thursday afternoon .

So much rain fell in such a short period that streets became flooded, pouring into buildings and overwhelming some subway stations.

Aaron Akaberi, 39, went back into his basement apartment in Brooklyn to try to save a dog, police said. He had rescued one dog when he went back to save the other. He never made it out of the Kingston Avenue apartment.

FDNY divers pulled out his body, and he was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital. The second dog also died.

"He was just a very pure, simple person," a friend of the victim said. "Didn't really need much at all. He was a giver, he wasn't a taker."

The apartment is being investigated as an illegal apar

See Full Page