The Death Toll From Flash Floods Due To Heavy Rain In New York - New Jersey Increases To 21 People

Flood illustration. (Unsplash/Chris Gallagher)

JAKARTA - Flash floods killed at least 26 people in the Northeastern United States, as remnants of Hurricane Ida caused torrential rains that swept away cars, submerged New York City subway lines and grounded airline flights, officials said Thursday.

The majority of residents in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, residents spend the day coping with flooded basements, power outages, damaged roofs, and requests for help from friends and family members stranded by the floods.

At least 12 New York City residents were killed, while the other nine who died were in metropolitan New Jersey. Among the fatalities, three people died in a basement in the Queens borough of New York City, while four residents of Elizabeth, New Jersey, died in a public housing complex that was flooded with 8 feet of water.

The highway turned into a rushing river-like stream within minutes as it rained Wednesday night, trapping drivers in puddles of rapidly rising water. In Somerset County, New Jersey, at least four motorists were killed, officials said.

"Unfortunately, more than a few people have died as a result of this incident," New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said at a briefing on Mullica Hill in the southern part of the state, where a tornado destroyed several homes.

The damage comes three days after Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the United States Gulf Coast on Sunday in Louisiana, devastated entire communities. Nine people have been confirmed dead in Louisiana.

In Conshohocken, outside Philadelphia, the overflow of the Schuylkill River inundated the hotels, warehouses, and condominiums that lined the river. Emergency forces were waiting for the water to recede on Thursday before starting the evacuation of possible hundreds of people living in nearby apartments, officials said.

Four people died in suburban Philadelphia in the storm, according to county spokeswoman Kelly Cofrancisco. And a Connecticut state police officer died after his cruiser was swept away in the floodwaters of the town of Woodbury Thursday morning, state police said.

Video footage on the Weather Channel showed fire billowing from a house in the riverside town of Manville, New Jersey, where flooding blocked fire truck access. The house next door appears to have burned down to the waterline on the street where the parked cars were submerged.

Ida's remains brought 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) of torrential rain to swaths of the Northeast from Philadelphia to Connecticut and set an hourly rainfall record of 3.15 inches for Manhattan according to the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, the 7.13 inches of rain that fell in New York City on Wednesday was the city's fifth-highest daily amount. New York officials blamed much of the flooding on the high volume of rainfall in a short span of time, rather than the daily total, which was within predictions.

"Because of climate change, unfortunately, this is something we have to deal with on a regular basis," said Kathy Hochul, the newly appointed governor of New York.

Separately, US President Joe Biden on Thursday said the federal government was ready to provide all necessary assistance.

The governors of New York and New Jersey, who declared a state of emergency in their states on Wednesday, urged residents to stay home as crews worked to clear highways, restoring service to the subway and commuter rail lines that serve millions of residents.

Subway service in New York City remains "very limited" and is unlikely to recover until today, transit officials said. Commuter rail services to the northern suburbs, most New Jersey Transit rail lines and Amtrak passenger services between Philadelphia and Boston were cancelled. About 370 flights were canceled at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport.

To note, nearly 170,000 electricity customers experienced outages Thursday in four northeastern states hit by heavy rains, mostly in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to PowerOutage.US, which compiles data from utility companies.