Where New Yorkers fled: City residents flee to top locations of Florida and The Hamptons amid pandemic, data reveals

Wealthier neighbourhood of Upper East Side, West Village, SoHo and Brooklyn Heights emptied out more than others in city

New Yorkers abandoned their homes in New York City, the United States’ epicentre for the coronavirus virus, in favour of top locations like Miami, Los Angeles, and The Hamptons, according to mail-forwarding data.

The populated city saw a decline in its residents starting in March as the novel virus spread and caused an increase in the hospitalizations rate and death toll.

With NY Pause, the state’s stay-at-home order, implemented on 20 March, it encouraged the city’s residents to flee to areas outside New York City.

The United States Post Office received 56,000 mail-forwarding requests from New York City in the month of March, which doubled the monthly average for the service, The New York Times first reported.

The number of requests then went up to 81,000 in April, and 60 per cent of those requests were for locations outside the city.

Many New Yorkers who left their homes amid the pandemic fled to areas in New Jersey, upstate New York, and Long Island. But these residents also choose to travel farther across the US, with some heading for Florida, Philadelphia, and even California.

Florida, specifically areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, was the most popular travel destination outside of the New York-New Jersey area.

Washington, Arlington and Alexandria in Virginia were also popular metropolitan areas New Yorkers requested their mail to be delivered to for the time being.

In California, locations of Los Angeles and Long Beach were popular requests.

The US Postal Service has allowed for most residents to make temporary mail-forwarding requests to a given location for up to a year to a given location.

While Manhattan had the largest number of residents requesting mail-forwarding to their temporary addresses, Brooklyn saw the second largest number of requests. Neighbourhoods in Brooklyn like Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights saw the most requests, which is where wealthier residents tend to live given the rent prices.

Cell phone data also showed an estimation of how many New Yorkers left their home between 1 March to May 1.

It found about 5 per cent of residents, or 420,000 people, left New York City in that time period, The New York Times reported.

Wealthier neighbourhoods like the Upper East Side, the West Village, SoHo and Brooklyn Heights saw a higher decrease of cell phone activity, with it down about 40 per cent since the start of March.

These wealthier neighbourhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn appeared to empty out first starting in March. Those who made $80,000 or less annually were not as likely to leave New York during the pandemic as those who made more.

New York was hit the hardest from the coronavirus pandemic in the US, as it was later determined a majority of the infections came from those travelling from Europe. The state has more than 359,000 confirmed infections and 28,325 people have died from the virus.