Having traveled over 1,200 miles from its spot of initial landfall, Ida showed it could still pack a devastating punch on Wednesday night, proving deadly and rewriting record books in the process.
From the mid-Atlantic to New England, Ida lived up to its billing as a dangerous tropical rainstorm. AccuWeather forecasters had been shouting from the rooftops about the threat it posed as it charged toward the Northeast. Dangerous flash flood conditions required the rescuing of dozens of people in Pennsylvania, while historically intense rain in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey turned lethal.
That deluge spelled tragedy throughout the tri-state region Wednesday night into Thursday and left at least 14 dead. Eight of those fatalities occurred in New York City, where people became trapped by rushing floodwaters, while another five deaths occurred at an apartment complex in Elizabeth, New Jersey, The Associated Press reported. Along with at least one confirmed death in Upper Dublin Township, Pennsylvania, officials in the Philadelphia area are reporting that there are “multiple fatalities” to be confirmed.
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. Five of the New York City fatalities occurred in Queens, where three members of a family drowned in Flushing and another two people in Jamaica were killed when flooding collapsed the wall of their home.
“We’re enduring an historic weather event tonight with record-breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads,” New York Mayor Bill 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.
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