At least eight people are dead in New York City and New Jersey as the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit the Tristate area on Wednesday headed into Thursday. A state of emergency was declared in New York City early Thursday morning as the storm headed up the New England coast.
In New York, the FDR Drive on the east side of Manhattan was under water by Wednesday evening. Subway stations were also flooding so much that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspended all service.
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency saying, “We’re enduring an historic weather event tonight with record breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads.”
The city also issued its first “flash flood emergency” warning.
Gov. Kathy Hochul also declared a state of emergency for the state of New York.
The National Weather Service in New York declared a set of flash flood emergencies, a first for the region, signaling “exceedingly rare situations when a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage from a flash flood is happening or will happen soon.”
In Central Park, 3.15 inches of rain were recorded in one hour on Wednesday night, far surpassing the 1.94 inches that fell in an hour’s time during Tropical Storm Henri a week and a half ago.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state emergency following the collapse of a roof at a Postal Service building.
Ida made landfall Sunday in Louisiana, in the New Orleans area, resulting in widespread damage, power outages and at least two deaths in the state.
