Several motorists stranded on flooded roads in New York and New Jersey had to be rescued from their submerged vehicles Tuesday night, as parts of the region received six inches of rain in about three hours, authorities said.
The rainstorm brought torrential rain to New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut, dumping two to three inches per hour, meteorologist Bill Goodman of the National Weather Service office in Upton, New York, told ABC News Wednesday morning.
“It was between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. when it was really the worst. That was peak time,” Goodman said of Tuesday night’s storm.
He said parts of New York City, including northern Manhattan and the Bronx, saw up to 6 inches of rain Tuesday night.
Six people were stranded in their cars by flash flooding on the Cross Island Parkway in New York City on Aug. 6, 2024, according to New York City emergency management officials.
Emergency Management in New York
New York City emergency management officials said several motorists were stranded on flooded roads and had to be extricated from their vehicles by rescue crews.
Six people were rescued from their vehicles while stranded in floodwaters on the Cross Island Parkway in New York City, emergency management officials said.
Floodwaters also inundated the Henry Hudson Parkway in the Bronx borough of New York City, where firefighters had to rescue a stranded motorist, according to the New York City Fire Department. At the height of the storm, the highway was briefly closed at West 232nd Street in the Bronx, authorities said.
On Long Island, police in Glen Cove, a town in Nassau County, had to rescue two people from a BMW stuck in water too high to safely cross, authorities said. Port Washington, about 10 miles from Glen Cove, recorded 5 inches of rain Tuesday night, the most of any town on Long Island, according to the NWS.
Elsewhere in the region, flooding on the Palisades Parkway in the Bergen County, New Jersey, town of Englewood Cliffs caused chaos for road users, authorities said. Teterboro Airport in Bergen County recorded nearly 4 inches of rain Tuesday night, according to the NWS.
One of the hardest-hit areas in New Jersey was Hackensack, which received nearly 3 inches of rain, according to the NWS.
In a Facebook post Tuesday night, the Hackensack Fire Department said several trees in the city had fallen and many streets were flooded. In a warning to motorists, the fire department said, “Monsoon weather continues, please do not drive through flooded areas.”
“Multiple people are trapped, multiple rescues are underway by Hackensack Fire Department,” the Hackensack Fire Department said in the message. “If you are in an area and can’t go any further, park your car in a dry area and wait out the storm… Turn around, don’t drown.”
Hurricane Debby – Additional rainfall expected through Saturday
ABC News
No injuries were reported in the New York metropolitan area.
The storm system flooded the Northeast after moving from the eastern Great Lakes, causing 163 reports of devastating storm surge, including numerous downed trees and flash flooding, from Michigan to New York.
Goodman said the remnants of Hurricane Debby are expected to reach the Northeast on Friday, bringing more rain to the region. Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane Monday morning in the Big Bend region of Florida’s Panhandle and produced heavy rain as it continued as a tropical storm toward Georgia and the Carolinas.
Hurricane Debby – Forecast for Saturday
ABC News
Slow-moving Storm Debby dumped more than 17 inches of rain in Summerville, South Carolina, and at least 6 inches in Cary, North Carolina. Another 6 to 10 inches of rain is expected in South Carolina and North Carolina Wednesday and Thursday.
Debby is expected to make a second landfall in South Carolina on Thursday, then move north toward the interior of North Carolina and Virginia Thursday night.
