A powerful Nor’easter storm lashed New York City and the tri-state area over the past weekend, bringing strong winds and heavy rain. The storm triggered severe coastal flooding, tree damage, widespread power outages, and tragically resulted in one fatality in Brooklyn. New York Governor Hochul and New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill have declared states of emergency in some areas. Meteorologists caution that the combination of dense foliage on trees and saturated soil could lead to more trees falling and sporadic power outages, while high water levels along the coast are expected to persist until Monday.
The storm, which began intensifying on Friday evening, brought winds reaching up to 45 miles per hour on Saturday afternoon, causing significant destruction.
At around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, a large tree on Euclid Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, was uprooted by strong winds and struck a 56-year-old man. The man sustained serious injuries all over his body and was rushed to Brookdale Hospital where he tragically succumbed to his injuries before 5 p.m. The victim was later identified as Leighton Brown, an employee of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).
In Glendale, Queens, on Jackie Robinson Parkway, strong winds toppled trees and streetlights, leading to an incident where a Nissan SUV collided with a parked police car while two officers were on the scene. The officers were injured and taken to a hospital but thankfully were not in life-threatening condition.
Due to astronomical high tides and persistent northeasterly winds, areas including Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, and the New Jersey coastline experienced coastal flooding and severe water inundation.
Roads in Howard Beach, Queens, were submerged in water, prompting some residents to use canoes for transportation.
Coastal flooding in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, reached knee-deep levels, with reports indicating that a $150,000, 8,000-pound boat along with its mooring lines were swept away by massive waves, marking the most severe flooding since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 according to the New York Post.
The intense storm caused extensive power outages with nearly 30,000 households in New Jersey and around 20,000 households in New York without electricity, leaving over 100,000 households along the Atlantic coast in darkness.
The “Global Citizen Festival” scheduled to take place in Central Park and expected to draw 60,000 attendees was abruptly canceled, while the “All Things Go Festival” at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens and singer Ed Sheeran’s concert in Massachusetts were also called off due to the storm.
Although the New York City subway system maintained normal operations, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) briefly suspended service on the Jefferson Port and Long Beach branches due to fallen trees, with several bus routes also diverted due to flooding.
Meteorologists estimate that the storm will bring accumulations of 4 to 6 inches of rainfall in New York City, with eastern Long Island and the New Jersey coast potentially seeing 6 to 8 inches.
Residents can expect a turnaround in weather by Tuesday. Clear to partly cloudy skies are forecasted with daytime temperatures rising to the low 70s Fahrenheit (around 21-23°C), and the favorable weather is expected to continue through Thursday.