The remnants of Hurricane Ida ripped through New York, New Jersey and across the US northeast early yesterday, triggering tornadoes, thunderstorms and torrential rain that inundated streets and paralyzed transport services.
Video of the flooding posted on social media showed major thoroughways, airport terminals, baseball stadiums and subway stations turned into wading pools.
Tornadoes hit Maryland and New Jersey, where NBC News reported at least two deaths.
Photo: AP
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio declared an emergency for New York City and New York Governor Kathy Hochul did the same for the state.
“We’re enduring an historic weather event tonight with record breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads,” De Blasio wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Police in New York City reported seven deaths, including a 50-year-old man, a 48-year-old woman and a two-year-old boy who were found unconscious and unresponsive inside a home.
Photo: AFP
They were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
In Manhattan’s Central Park, 8cm of rain fell in an hour on Wednesday and as much as 13.2cm was recorded by 11pm, said Rich Otto, a meteorologist with the US Weather Prediction Center.
Emergency flash flood warnings were posted from Delaware to Massachusetts.
The New York Post reported four people had died in Queens and Brooklyn after getting trapped in their basements.
Ida smashed into Louisiana on Sunday with 241kph winds, leaving more than 1 million customers across the south, including New Orleans, without electricity and killing at least five people.
The US National Weather Service earlier issued a flash flood emergency for New York City and northeast New Jersey.
The service said that it is the first time it has sent out one for the region.
The service also issued a tornado warning for Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City, which expired at 9:30pm on Wednesday.
A tornado watch remained in effect across New York City until 1am.
A flash flood warning remained in place for large parts of Long Island.
De Blasio said that bridges and tunnels remained open, but roads were flooded across the city, with just the top of some cars peeking out.
The city’s fire and police departments are prepared to assist if needed, he said in an interview on local news station NY1.
“The part I’m worried about particularly is folks out on the road,” he said.
The city’s subway system experienced severe service limitations as water poured onto underground platforms in Manhattan.
Three branches of the Metro North Rail Road, which connects to the northern suburbs, were suspended, said Tim Minton, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the city’s buses, subways and commuter rail lines.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Wednesday declared a state of emergency that took effect at 9pm across all 21 counties in the state.
He called an 8am meeting with state emergency management officials and said he would tour damage of a tornado that hit Harrison Township, which ripped apart dozens of homes.
More than 80,000 power outages had been reported in New Jersey, he said.
Major flooding was reported in rivers across the state, where the south branch of the Raritan River in Stanton had reached record heights in just six hours, breaking an old mark set in 1955, the National Weather Service said.
The Lackawaxen River in Pennsylvania rose by more than 3m since Wednesday morning.
Rain records have been posted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and as amounts are tallied through the night more would probably fall, Otto said.
“It is an extremely rare event,” Otto said. “It is causing a lot of problems. The worst is happening right now.”
Additional reporting by AP
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