NEW YORK, Oct 14: Eight straight days of heavy rains in northeastern United States, covering states from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to New Hampshire have resulted in a deluge that has trapped motorists, delayed airline flights and sent streams overflowing their banks.
Ten people have died in the region because of the downpour, and four others were missing in New Hampshire.
Flood warnings covered parts of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, and residents in some New Jersey communities were urged to evacuate their homes.
Many communities living in the path of raging flood waters were asked to evacuate as coast guard and the local police departments ferried motorboats and huge trucks to salvage people living there.
Northern New Jersey has received as much as 15cms of rain in two days. A surge of rain over the weekend dumped 12cms across the state and as much as 25cms in a few places.
“We are keeping a close eye on the rivers and waiting to see what happens, how high the water levels will go, especially during the overnight hours,” a police official in New Jersey said on Friday.
The National Guard handed out thousands of sand bags in New Jersey’s Essex and Passaic counties. Inmates from the Passaic County jail were pressed into duty at a public works garage filling the bags with road sand normally used during snowstorms.
Water lapped at the foundations of some Bergen County homes, and officials there expected rivers to swell even more.
In New York’s Central Park, five centimetres of rain fell between midnight on Wednesday and Thursday evening on top of 11cms on Wednesday.
It also broke the record for the day, which was set at 5cms on Oct 13, 1927.
Incoming flights at two of the area’s three major airports were delayed by 90 minutes.
In Connecticut, thousands of homes and businesses lost power, including the University of Bridgeport, which cancelled classes on Thursday. The downpour came after a widespread dry spell.
“We literally had a drought meeting the day before. I highly suspect when we get together next week, the drought for the time being is over,” said an environmental analyst.
