Governor of New Jersey, Philip Murphy on Friday announced two more deaths from hurricane Ida, noting that many residents died in their cars, trapped by rapidly rising floodwaters and drowned without means of escape.
The remnants of Hurricane Ida caused flash flooding and a number of deaths and disrupted transit across parts of New York and New Jersey, according to reports.
In New Jersey, 25 people were reported killed while in New York at least 15 were dead, many of them submerged in ground-level apartments that they may have sought out for their affordability.
Residents on Friday confronted the fallout from a downpour that killed at least 45 people across four states and illustrated with frightening clarity the threat posed by a changing climate.
In Connecticut, a 26-year veteran of the state police force was killed when his car was swept away by floodwaters.
And in Pennsylvania, at least four people died in counties close to the swollen Delaware River, six people in New Jersey were missing.
Destruction was widespread, from a row of homes in southern New Jersey leveled by a tornado that reached maximum wind speeds of 150 miles per hour, to cars submerged in water along the Sprain Brook Parkway in Yonkers.
On Friday morning, nearly 50,000 homes in the region were still without power, including 26,000 in Pennsylvania, 12,000 in New Jersey and nearly 8,000 in New York.
The damage was all the more harrowing given that it came with relatively little warning from political leaders who were already contending with a pandemic that continues to kill thousands of Americans each week.
Those leaders, from President Biden down to New York’s Democratic nominee for mayor, Eric Adams, expressed a similar sentiment in their reactions to the storm.
In a speech from the White House, Biden called the storm “devastating” before pivoting to discussion of the other natural disasters afflicting the U.S, including wildfires in the West and the damage inflicted by Hurricane Ida in the South.
“This destruction is everywhere,” he said. “It’s a matter of life and death and we’re all in this together. This is one of the great challenges of our time.’’
The New York State governor, Kathy Hochul, said she formally requested a Federal Emergency Declaration “for 14 downstate counties following damage caused by Thursday historic weather event.”
New York’s subway traffic was still partially halted on Thursday evening, after some stops had been completely flooded earlier.
In neighbouring New Jersey, the storm had uncovered roofs and damaged houses, as shown on videos broadcast on TV.
Both Newark Airport in New Jersey and New York’s John F Kennedy Airport reported disruption due to the storm.
Flights at Newark Airport in New Jersey had been temporarily suspended, while New York’s John F Kennedy Airport reported hundreds of delays.
Some 100,000 households in the region were temporarily without electricity.
Late on Wednesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, had declared a state of emergency in New York City after record rainfall.
