Heavy Storm Cuts Power, Grounds Planes Across US Northeast
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared an emergency in New York City
A powerful nor’easter has knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses in the US Northeast, grounding hundreds of flights and prompting state leaders to declare emergencies. Two weekend concerts by pop star Ed Sheeran at Gillette Stadium outside Boston were canceled as a precaution.
High winds battered the coast from Delaware to Massachusetts Saturday, and conditions were expected to get worse in New York City as the day wears on, said Bob Oravec, a senior forecaster with the US Weather Prediction Center.
Storm surges are expected to raise ocean levels by three feet along the New Jersey and New York coast, and even higher across New England. Saturday night’s full moon will make things worse by raising tides even higher.
State of Emergency
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared an emergency in New York City and the surrounding areas on Friday as the storm developed, and New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill did the same for her state. From Massachusetts to Maryland, 101,674 homes and businesses were without power as of 1:15 p.m., with areas in Queens, Long Island and along the New Jersey coast among the hardest-hit, according to Poweroutage.com. Trees are especially vulnerable as they still have their leaves, which could lead to falling branches that down more power lines.
Meanwhile, workers in New York City were preparing for uprooted trees and clogged catch basins in anticipation of flooding, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. The rainfall forecast for the city doubled to an estimated six inches Saturday, causing coastal flooding and knocking out power to about 22,000 customers, Hochul said in a news conference Saturday morning.
“We expect this weather pattern to continue and even intensify over the next day,” Hochul said. “This could, and it already has been, bringing down trees and power lines and cause power outages.”
The Global Citizen Festival in New York’s Central Park and the All Things Go NYC music and culture festival were also called off.
Affected transit
In New Jersey, the storm flooded some coastal and back bay roads, making them impassable, and officials urged residents not to drive through them. Sherrill said in a social media post Saturday that conditions had temporarily eased in parts of the state but were expected to worsen again later in the day.
Across the US, 425 flights were canceled, mostly from Boston’s Logan International Airport and other Massachusetts fields, FlightAware said. At least 15 flights were also canceled from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Ground stops and delays were likely in Newark, Philadelphia, Washington, and at John F. Kennedy International Airport as well, the Federal Aviation Administration said on its website.
New Jersey Transit suspended its River Line light rail service along the Delaware between Florence and Cass Street stations south of Trenton. The Long Island Rail Road suspended service to its Long Beach Branch due to flooding Saturday. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has suspended most of its commuter ferries in Boston Harbor and the surrounding area.
National Weather Service issued coastal flood warnings and watches, including for New York City, where it said tides may come in up to three feet higher than normal at the Battery, at the southern end of Manhattan, and waves as high as 12 feet (3.6 meters) may crash into the shoreline in Brooklyn and Queens through Sunday. From the coast in New England through the New Jersey coast, wind gusts may reach 60 miles (97 km) per hour.
Oravec said the storm will remain intense in New York and New England through Sunday but will have weakened by Monday morning when commuters face a return to the office.
(Updates with outage numbers, canceled flights, Long Island Railroad service cancellation and statements from New York and New Jersey governors starting in the fifth paragraph.)
