Nor'easter Floods Northeast, Cutting Power to Over 100,000
A slow-moving nor'easter flooded coastal communities from New Jersey to New England, knocked out power to over 100,000 customers and disrupted travel across the region.
A powerful nor'easter continued to lash the Northeast on Sunday, inundating coastal communities and leaving more than 100,000 homes and businesses without electricity as forecasters cautioned that further high tides could swamp vulnerable shorelines.
The slow-moving storm, which killed a New York City housing authority worker when a tree fell on Saturday, was expected to remain over the region through Sunday, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and dangerous surf from New Jersey to New England.
By Sunday morning the storm sat just south of Long Island and east of northern New Jersey, and forecasters expected it to loop around the area for roughly another 24 hours. Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, said the heaviest remaining rainfall was likely from northern New Jersey through New York City and Long Island into southern New England.
While the storm was gradually weakening, Oravec said the risk of tidal flooding would persist through high-tide cycles on Sunday morning and again in the evening. "The most impactful parts of the storm are likely going to be the high winds and the tidal flooding," he said.
PowerOutage.us reported more than 100,000 customers without power across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic on Sunday morning, including over 40,000 in New York, 31,000 in Connecticut, 21,000 in New Jersey and 11,000 in Massachusetts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said response coordination centres in affected regions were operating at an "enhanced posture," with teams on standby in New England in case of widespread outages.
Flooding disrupted daily life across the region. In New Jersey and New York on Saturday, some residents kayaked down flooded streets, while others headed to beaches to surf the higher-than-usual waves. Emergency crews in Sea Bright, New Jersey, rescued a woman and her dog after their vehicle became trapped in floodwaters.
In Surf City, New Jersey, water rose inside a marina where workers had moved equipment to higher ground. Owner Kenny Formica said customers reported boats and Jet Skis missing or blown from their lifts. In Norfolk, Virginia, passing cars pushed wakes through flooded streets.
Travel was also affected. Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Boston Logan International Airport, while flooding cut off highway access to North Carolina's Hatteras Island, stranding visitors and forcing one couple to scramble to relocate their wedding after most of their roughly 45 guests could not reach the island.