Coastal Flooding
A slow-moving storm floods Northeast coasts, cuts power to thousands and delays hundreds of flights.
Coastal towns felt it first. A slow-moving nor'easter pounded the Northeast coast for a second day Sunday, flooding streets and cutting power to thousands of homes.
More than 100,000 customers lost power across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic at times over the weekend, according to PowerOutage.us data cited by Al Jazeera. The Associated Press reported the same rough figure on Saturday. Downed trees knocked out lines from New Jersey up through New England. One person died. The New York City Housing Authority said a tree fell on one of its employees in Brooklyn, the AP reported.
Rain fell hard. The storm dumped more than 10 centimeters, or 4 inches, of it in parts of New Jersey since Friday, Al Jazeera reported. Tidal surges swamped the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens on Sunday. Wind gusts toppled trees on Long Island and knocked down utility poles, according to Al Jazeera.
In Stone Harbor, New Jersey, a restaurant owner and staff scrambled to mop up after high tide flooded the business ahead of a wedding rehearsal, the AP reported. Norfolk, Virginia, residents said flooding left cars stranded on city streets. Kayakers paddled down flooded roads in Long Branch, New Jersey.
Boston's airport took the worst of it. More than 300 flights in and out were canceled Sunday, about a quarter of the day's schedule, after 260 cancellations Saturday, CNBC reported, citing FlightAware data. At LaGuardia Airport in New York, more than 660 flights were delayed, roughly 60% of the schedule, as the Federal Aviation Administration slowed operations there for high wind, CNBC said. American, United, Delta and JetBlue waived change fees for travelers rebooking through midweek.
Hurricane Sandy caused more than $60 billion in damage across the East Coast in 2012, and Al Jazeera reported the storm brought back memories of it. This storm's toll has been far smaller. An El Nino climate pattern could bring more nor'easters to the East Coast this fall, Al Jazeera reported.
By Sunday the storm was weakening. Tidal flooding will persist through high-tide cycles Sunday night, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, according to Al Jazeera.