From Reuters:
“'Historic' New York-area
flooding in Ida's wake leaves at least 9 dead”
Flooding killed at least nine
people, swept away cars, submerged subway lines and temporarily grounded
flights in New York and New Jersey as the remnants of Hurricane Ida brought
torrential rains to the area. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio described the
flooding and weather on Wednesday night as a "historic weather
event," and the National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency in
New York City for the first time. Recovery efforts were underway early on
Thursday to bring back transportation systems serving millions of residents in
the densely populated metropolitan area.
The governors of New York and New
Jersey, who had declared emergencies in their states on Wednesday, urged
residents to stay home as crews worked to clear roadways and restore service to
New York City subways and commuter rail lines. "It is not safe to
drive," New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said on Twitter. "Our crews
are working to clear and open roads, and we need everyone to stay off them so
crews can safely do their job."
Ida's remnants brought six to
eight inches (15 to 20 cm) of rain to a swath of the Northeast from
Philadelphia to Connecticut and set an hourly record of 3.15 inches for
Manhattan, breaking the previous one that was set less than two weeks ago, the
National Weather Service said. The 7.13 inches of rain that fell in New York
City on Wednesday was the city's fifth highest daily amount, it said. “Right
now my street looks more like a lake,” said Lucinda Mercer, 64, as she peered
out her apartment window in Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River
from New York. Mercer, who works as a crisis line fundraiser, said flood waters
were lapping halfway up the hub caps of parked cars, and some residents put
plastic garbage bags over their shoes to cross the street.
Subway service in New York City
remained "extremely limited" while there was no service at all on
commuter rail lines to the city's northern suburbs on Thursday morning, the
Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) said. Janno Lieber, the MTA's acting chair
and CEO, told local media it was going to take until later in the day to
restore full service. Images posted on social media overnight showed water
gushing over subway platforms and trains. The Long Island Railroad, which is
also run by the MTA, said early on Thursday that services on most of its
branches had been restored but commuters should expect systemwide delays of up
to 30 minutes.
At least one person was killed as
the flooding inundated the New Jersey city of Passaic, Mayor Hector Lora told
CNN. The vehicle the man was riding in was swept away by the water, CNN
reported. NBC New York reported that another person had died in New Jersey and
seven had died in New York City, including a 2-year-old boy. Local media
reported that people had been trapped in their basements as the storm sent
water surging through the city. Mark Haley of Summit, New Jersey, said getting
back home after a 15-minute drive to a bowling alley to celebrate his
daughter's sixth birthday on Wednesday night became a six-hour slog through
flood waters that often left him trapped. "When we got out, it was a war
zone,” said Haley, 50, a fitness trainer, who got home to find almost two feet
(0.6 m) of water in his basement. All New Jersey Transit rail services apart
from the Atlantic City Rail Line were suspended, the service said on its
website. Amtrak said on Thursday morning that it canceled all passenger rail
service between Philadelphia and Boston. Tornadoes spawned by the storm ripped
through parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, images on social media showed. New
Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport said on Twitter that it had resumed
"limited flight operations" at around midnight after all flight
activity was suspended late on Wednesday because of "severe
flooding." More than 200,000 electricity customers were without power
early on Thursday in five northeastern states that got most of the rains
overnight, mostly in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to PowerOutage.US,
which gathers data from utility companies. There were also outages in New York,
Connecticut and Massachusetts, it said. The hit to the region came three days
after Ida pounded southern Louisiana as a very powerful hurricane.
Reconnaissance flights revealed entire communities devastated by wind and
floods.
^ Ida has really done a number on
NJ and NY. ^
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