Heavy rain prompts flash flood warnings across US northeast
NEW YORK : Heavy rain inundated parts of New York and New Jersey last night, while flash flood warnings were in effect across a wide swathe of the eastern seaboard, where travel was massively disrupted and some vehicles trapped.
New Jersey governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency, urging people to stay indoors.
Authorities across the region, including in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, warned of hazardous driving conditions due to the risk of flash floods.
JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports temporarily suspended departures last night, forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights.
Rescue workers in Scotch Plains, New Jersey waded into gushing floodwaters armed with red flotation devices after several drivers became stranded in the sudden surge, according to footage from CBS.
In New York City, video shared on social media showed muddy brown water spewing like a geyser in front of a subway station's turnstiles.
Multiple subway lines were briefly suspended or running with delays, while above ground, massive traffic jams paralysed several of the city's main thoroughfares.
The national weather service (NWS) urged drivers encountering flooded roads to 'turn around'.
'Most flood deaths occur in vehicles,' it said.
A flood warning remained in effect until this morning for parts of New Jersey, while the slow-moving storm was expected to continue depositing heavy rain on the US Mid-Atlantic region into the middle of the week, according to the NWS.
'The greatest concentration of storms will be across the southern Mid-Atlantic/Appalachians today and shift northward with the boundary into the central Mid-Atlantic/Appalachians tomorrow,' the government forecaster said.
More than 5cm of rain drenched several urban areas in less than two hours.
New York's Staten Island recorded between 10cm to 15cm of rain last night, according to the city's emergency notification system.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democrat running for mayor of New York City, wrote on social media that the rapid flooding emphasised the need for climate-proofing the city.
'We must upgrade our infrastructure for this new climate reality,' he wrote.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Torrential rain pounds South Korea for third day as thousands take shelter
Residents wade through an inundated street due to heavy rain in the city of Gwangju. (AP pic) SEOUL : More than 5,000 people in South Korea have been forced into shelters as heavy rain pounded parts of the country for a third day, with the deluge killing at least four people and destroying property and infrastructure, the safety ministry said on Friday. Torrential rain warnings remain in effect for most of the country's western and southern regions and the weather service has advised extreme caution against landslides and flooding through Saturday. Some parts in the south including the city of Gwangju were hit by record precipitation of more than 400 millimetres (16 inches) in the past 24 hours as of early on Friday, the safety ministry said. Four people have died and one remained missing, it said. Two were trapped in cars on flooded roads and another died in a basement under flood water in the central South Chungcheong province, it said. A driver was also killed after a 10-metre-high (33 ft) roadside wall collapsed on top of a moving vehicle on Wednesday in Osan, some 44 kilometres (27 miles) south of Seoul, fire agency officials said. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who has been vocal about stepping up the government's role in disaster prevention and response, is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on the weather on Friday.
Free Malaysia Today
5 days ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Heavy rain prompts flash flood warnings across US northeast
Authorities warned of hazardous driving conditions due to the risk of flash floods. (WABC-TV/AP pic) NEW YORK : Heavy rain inundated parts of New York and New Jersey last night, while flash flood warnings were in effect across a wide swathe of the eastern seaboard, where travel was massively disrupted and some vehicles trapped. New Jersey governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency, urging people to stay indoors. Authorities across the region, including in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, warned of hazardous driving conditions due to the risk of flash floods. JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports temporarily suspended departures last night, forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights. Rescue workers in Scotch Plains, New Jersey waded into gushing floodwaters armed with red flotation devices after several drivers became stranded in the sudden surge, according to footage from CBS. In New York City, video shared on social media showed muddy brown water spewing like a geyser in front of a subway station's turnstiles. Multiple subway lines were briefly suspended or running with delays, while above ground, massive traffic jams paralysed several of the city's main thoroughfares. The national weather service (NWS) urged drivers encountering flooded roads to 'turn around'. 'Most flood deaths occur in vehicles,' it said. A flood warning remained in effect until this morning for parts of New Jersey, while the slow-moving storm was expected to continue depositing heavy rain on the US Mid-Atlantic region into the middle of the week, according to the NWS. 'The greatest concentration of storms will be across the southern Mid-Atlantic/Appalachians today and shift northward with the boundary into the central Mid-Atlantic/Appalachians tomorrow,' the government forecaster said. More than 5cm of rain drenched several urban areas in less than two hours. New York's Staten Island recorded between 10cm to 15cm of rain last night, according to the city's emergency notification system. Zohran Mamdani, the Democrat running for mayor of New York City, wrote on social media that the rapid flooding emphasised the need for climate-proofing the city. 'We must upgrade our infrastructure for this new climate reality,' he wrote.
Free Malaysia Today
5 days ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Flash floods in New Mexico resort town kill 3, trap dozens
Footage on social media showed an entire house careening downstream through the flood-engorged Rio Ruidoso river. (AP pic) LOS ANGELES : Torrential rains triggered flash floods in New Mexico that killed at least three people yesterday, including two young children, and trapped dozens in homes and vehicles in the resort village of Ruidoso, a state emergency official and a village statement said. The children, aged four and seven years old, and a man were swept downstream and later found dead, the mountain resort village said late yesterday on its website, adding that rescue operations were underway. Dramatic video footage on social media and various news outlets showed an entire house, ripped from its foundations, careening downstream through the brown, muddy waters of the flood-engorged Rio Ruidoso, side-swiping trees as it went. 'I've seen the video. We don't know if anyone was in the house,' said Danielle Silva, a spokesman for the New Mexico department of homeland security and emergency management. Emergency teams organised by local law enforcement and the national guard conducted at least 85 swift-water rescues in and around Ruidoso, many of them people stranded in cars and homes by elevated flood waters, Silva said. Silva said the river had quickly risen by a provisional record of 6.2m at the peak of the flood, and as waters began to recede in the evening, authorities began searching for survivors in the debris. The latest floods come just four days after a deadly flash flood triggered by heavy rains along the Guadalupe River killed at least 109 people and left scores missing after ravaging a swathe of Texas Hill Country. In New Mexico, Silva said the severity of the debris flow was heightened by a flame-scarred landscape stripped of vegetation in a wildfire which was then followed by flooding that eroded the soil. Ruidoso, a popular summer retreat as well as ski resort nestled in the Sierra Blanca mountain range of south-central New Mexico, is located about 185km south of Albuquerque, the state's largest city.
