Death toll rises after 'most significant flash-flooding' in NYC history

A deluge of rainfall assaulted the New York City metro area Wednesday night into Thursday, leading to numerous fatalities, and is being described by AccuWeather forecasters as "the most significant flash-flooding disaster" in the city's history.

By Friday morning, at least 48 fatalities had been confirmed along the East Coast as a result of the storm, according to The Associated Press. Officials said people in five states died in the extreme weather with 25 people in New Jersey, the highest death toll by state, killed. At least 10 were killed in New York and people died in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Connecticut. Ida's death toll from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast had eclipsed 60 by Friday.

Three of the New York fatalities occurred in a single household in the New York City borough of Queens. The three family members, including a 2-year-old boy, drowned in the neighborhood of Flushing. Two others were killed in the neighborhood of Jamaica when flooding collapsed the wall of their home.

"I have no words," New York City resident Deborah Torres told the AP. "How can something like this happen? And the worst is that there's a family downstairs with a baby, and they couldn't get out."

Another four deaths occurred at an apartment complex in Elizabeth, New Jersey, The AP reported. Elizabeth's mayor had previously reported five fatalities from the complex.

On Thursday evening, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that he had requested a Major Disaster Declaration from President Joe Biden in the state. Murphy said the approval of this request from the president would allow for additional support to help residents and business owners recover from the flooding.

"The torrential rain from Tropical Rainstorm Ida on Wednesday night resulted in the most significant flash-flooding disaster in New York City history," AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said. AccuWeather forecasters had been shouting from the rooftops this week about the threat the storm posed as it charged toward the Northeast.

From the mid-Atlantic to New England, Ida lived up to its billing as a dangerous tropical rainstorm. AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers said he increased his preliminary estimate of total damage and economic loss from Ida due the extreme impacts across the Northeast. He raised the estimate to $95 billion from a previous estimate of $70 billion to $80 billion.

In the greater Philadelphia area, at least three fatalities had been confirmed by officials, including one death of a woman who was struck by a falling tree in Upper Dublin Township.

In Rockville, Maryland, a 19-year-old man was killed in the flooding at the Rock Creek Woods Apartments on Twinbrook Parkway. According to Fox5, the man was trying to assist his mother when he was swept away.

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"He was worried about her so he came out from the water, like he was trying to look for a way to help her. He was thinking about her first. And then she came out and he went back again - and he never came back," said the victim's brother-in-law, Juan Gregorio.

As New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told ABC7 in a late-night interview on Wednesday, this was a dire situation for all five boroughs.

"We're enduring an historic weather event tonight with record-breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads," de Blasio said while declaring a state of emergency in New York City late Wednesday.

The city also saw multiple fatalities of people in cars, a tragic fate that also accounted for the death of at least one driver in Passaic, New Jersey. As floodwaters rushed through streets in the city, a 70-year-old motorist was swept away after his family was rescued.

"Unfortunately, the car was overtaken by the waters, and the firefighters who were being dragged down under the vehicle were unable to get him out," Passaic Mayor Hector Lora told WCBS-TV. Lora added there was another unconfirmed report of a separate death in the city.

The calendar had just flipped to September hours earlier, but it didn't take long for residents in New York City to see more than their average monthly rainfall. In a staggering 60-minute span, from 8:51 p.m. to 9:51 p.m., the Big Apple's Central Park recorded 3.15 inches of precipitation, shattering the one-hour rainfall record that had just been set two weeks ago amid Tropical Storm Henri.

On the opposite side of the country, the National Weather Service (NWS) office in San Francisco noted that the city has recorded only 5.38 inches of rain since Jan. 1, "meaning Central Park observed over half of all the rainfall the [observation site] has gotten in 1 hour."

Just across the Hudson River from New York City, floodwaters inundated Hoboken, New Jersey, one of the hardest-hit towns in the metropolitan area by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Scenes of flooded basement apartments surfaced on social media, calling to mind the devastation that occurred there in the wake of Sandy.

South of New York City, the numbers were even more immense in New Jersey. In Newark, a daily total of 8.41 inches of rain obliterated the 24-hour record for the city, in what was described by some to be a type of rain event that occurs every 200 to 500 years.

Such a historic weather event also triggered the NWS New York office to issue its first-ever flash flood emergency alerts, as one was issued for northern New Jersey and then another was issued for parts of New York City. The alert is reserved for life-threatening flooding situations, and is used for "exceedingly rare situations when extremely heavy rain is leading to a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage," the NWS said.

The alert first began being issued in 2017 and has been used for rare, severe situations such as in southeast Texas during Hurricane Harvey and in Midland County, Michigan, when the Tittabawassee River overflowed following multiple dam failures in 2020.

As Ida shifted east, it carried its hobby of rewriting records with it to Hartford, Connecticut, and to Worcester, Massachusetts. In Hartford, the city recorded a little over 4 inches of rain on Wednesday, smashing the old daily record rainfall by over 3 inches. Another 1.30 inches fell on Thursday.

And in central Massachusetts, Worcester also demolished its daily maximum rainfall record on Wednesday, recorded 2.46 inches, breaking a 94-year-old record.

Earlier Wednesday, emergency rescue efforts were required to save 40 students and the driver of a school bus in Pittsburgh. The bus was trapped in floodwaters on a road in Shaler Township, requiring rescuers from the Cherry City Volunteer Fire Co. to use emergency rafts and evacuate students from the vehicle's backdoor emergency exit.

Parts of downtown Philadelphia were severely flooded Thursday morning as the Schuylkill River crested at the major flood stage. The river just fell short of a record height of 17 feet that was set back on Oct. 4, 1869, when it reached an observed height of 16.35 feet around 11 a.m. Thursday. The river flooding had massive implications on traffic around the city, as major thoroughfares such as the Vine Street Expressway, Schuylkill Expressway, MLK Drive and Kelly Drive were all underwater, according to NBC 10. One aerial image from NBC 10 showed the city's famed boathouses along Boathouse Row, which sits along the Schuylkill, partially submerged.

In the eastern portion of the state, similarly intense scenes of flooding unfolded in the areas surrounding Philadelphia, with another severe twist: tornadoes.

The NWS office in Mount Holly, New Jersey, has confirmed that seven tornadoes occurred on Wednesday in its surrounding area.

Multiple large and dangerous tornadoes were reported in the Philadelphia area Wednesday evening. Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, experienced an EF2 tornado from the Fort Washington area to Horsham Township.

Annapolis, Maryland, also experienced an EF2 tornado with 125 mph wind gusts and a path length of 11 miles, according to the NWS.

An EF1 tornado was confirmed from Burlington County, New Jersey, to Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Wind gusts reached 90 mph. Buckingham, Pennsylvania, and Upper Makefield Township, Pennsylvaniaa, both experienced EF1 tornadoes on Wednesday as well.

EF0 tornadoes were also confirmed in Dennis, Massachusetts, and Princeton, New Jersey, according to the NWS. Wind gusts maxed out at 75 mph in both towns.

Devastating damage was also seen in one neighborhood in the community of Mullica Hill, New Jersey, after another confirmed tornado tore through the area. Some homes were completely obliterated and parts of other homes were ripped off due to the powerful twister's winds. On Thursday evening, the NWS confirmed that the Mullica Hill tornado was an EF3 with peak wind gusts of 150 mph.

There was an additional confirmed tornado in Chester County, Pennsylvania. These reports from the NWS were preliminary, and ratings for the tornadoes have not yet been determined.

"I could see through the corner window...kind of like a whirlwind," a homeowner in Mullica Hills, who was running with his wife and son to shelter in the basement at the time, told NJ Advance Media. "As (my wife) was ... trying to close the door, the door came off."

Gloucester County, New Jersey, officials reported Wednesday that there were no fatalities due to the tornado, but at least two people suffered injuries. Mullica Hill is located about 23 miles south of Philadelphia.

Within Gloucester County, Harrison Township Mayor Louis Manzo said dozens of homes were "flattened."

"Just spoke with Harrison Township Mayor Lou Manzo about the devastating tornado that ripped through the Mullica Hill community and surrounding area tonight," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said on Twitter Wednesday night. "We're closely monitoring the situation and will do whatever is needed to support the response and recovery in the days ahead."

Murphy paid a visit to the hard-hit community on Thursday morning where he spoke to homeowners and pledged to do everything in the state's power to speed up the recovery process. Murphy said on Twitter that he spoke to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who offered federal assistance to the state.

"We will work tirelessly with our federal partners to meet the great needs of our homeowners, towns, and businesses in the wake of this storm," Murphy said.

In Queens, New York, dozens of matches at the annual U.S. Open tennis tournament were postponed on Wednesday due to the severe weather, including one match between Diego Schwartzman and Kevin Anderson that needed to be stopped midway through. As intense rain pelted Louis Armstrong Stadium, Schwartzman slipped while playing and asked officials to inspect the court. Play was initially put on pause before being suspended. The match was later resumed around midnight, with fans kept in their seats due to NWS alerts warning against travel, Reuters reported.

And, at the height of the storm Wednesday night, video posted on Twitter showed the outfield at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx completely under water.

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