Deadly Storm Lashes East Coast
Over the weekend, a potent and lethal nor'easter swept the eastern United States, leaving behind outages, floodwaters, destructive gusts and perilous sea conditions. Downed trees and utility lines were reported throughout the area, one fatality occurred and hundreds of thousands of people lost power, while officials warned the situation might worsen. From North Carolina up through New England, communities faced serious coastal inundation, heavy surf, strong winds, rainfall and treacherous rip currents, with Boston and the New York City tri-state region among those affected.[S1]
By Sunday, outages had spread widely, with roughly 150,000 homes already without power, as tracked by Poweroutage.US. The Federal Aviation Administration urged passengers to confirm flight status with their carriers. FlightAware logged over 3,000 delays within the US and close to 430 cancellations. Because of the storm, New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued an emergency declaration for the Bronx, Kings, Nassau, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties.[S1]
Fatal Incident and Local Disruption
On Saturday, a tree toppled in Brooklyn, in eastern New York City, killing a person during the nor'easter. The victim, a 56-year-old employee of the New York City housing authority, died when the tree fell on him in a parking lot, and police said he was declared dead at Brookdale University hospital. Investigators had not yet concluded whether wind brought the tree down. In Queens, strong gusts caused major problems when a tree came down around 5.40pm in Glendale, and fallen power lines led authorities to shut the road; the New York City fire department evacuated a nearby building as a precaution, with no injuries reported there.[S1]
On the Jersey Shore, residents used Saturday to clear debris and tidy up during breaks between high tides, after the nor'easter pushed floodwater into streets and homes close to the New Jersey coast. Eight New Jersey counties remain covered by a state of emergency declared before the coastal storm hit. The system reached the mid-Atlantic and New England over the weekend and was projected to persist into early this week. Flooding was anticipated to rise and fall with the tides as the week went on. The National Weather Service forecast significant coastal flooding from the Jersey Shore southward to North Carolina's northern Outer Banks, with more moderate flooding expected along the Massachusetts coast.[S1]
