After New Jersey and Pennsylvania were flooded on Tuesday, slow downpours are soaking parts of the state and much of New England, causing dangerous flooding in eastern New York on Wednesday.
Flash flood warnings are in effect for central Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley, with rainfall totals exceeding 7 inches in some areas.
⛈️ Get the weather forecast with the CNN Weather app
• Flood Rescue: Multiple counties in eastern New York state have declared a state of emergency due to flooding. State officials said the state’s whitewater rescue team was called in and the rescue was carried out by boat.
• RECORD RAIN: The storm has dumped about 6.7 inches of rain at Albany International Airport since Tuesday, the city’s heaviest two-day rainfall total on record. The storm’s heaviest rainfall so far in Schodack, New York, was about 12 inches, more than double the average amount of rain the area receives for the entire month of July.
• Travel Impact: More than 200 flights were canceled Wednesday at LaGuardia, JFK and Newark airports in the New York City area, according to FlightAware. Boston Logan International Airport had about 60 cancellations as of late afternoon, but hundreds of delays. Meanwhile, Amtrak canceled service between New York City and Albany due to “rising water and debris on the tracks from recent storms.”
• Day 2 of flooding: The storm flooded parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania on Tuesday. July’s worth of rain fell in several parts of northern New Jersey, and 20 people were rescued from flooding in Paterson.
The greatest risk of flooding into Wednesday night is concentrated in parts of eastern New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut, where the risk of flooding rain is level 3/4, as seen in the image below.
Car flooded, rescue operations underway
Video from CNN affiliate WRGB showed cars stranded in floodwaters in Guilderland, New York, with multiple roads closed due to flooding. A man in the video appeared to remove a child from one of the vehicles and help another person wade through waist-deep water.
In Chatham, New York, firefighters rescued a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier after his delivery vehicle became stranded in flood water.
Nearly 20 roads were closed in Columbia County and local fire departments were working to pump water out of flooded homes, County Board of Supervisors Chairman Matt Murrell told CNN.
Colin Brennan of New York’s Homeland Security and Emergency Services Agency told CNN that a state rescue team was called to a flooded home in Kooymans, north of Hudson, on Wednesday. He said rescue workers helped two adults and two children evacuate their homes.
Responders drove front-end loaders through floodwaters to help Putnam County families evacuate their homes. Photos posted by the local fire department show the house nearly surrounded by water that reached the bumper of a car parked outside.
The day before, in west-central Pennsylvania, crews rescued three people and two dogs from a home in Coalport, Rescue Horse & Ladder Fire Department said.
Parts of eastern New York and western New England could see locally heavy rain at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour, which is expected to continue into Wednesday evening, putting these areas at the greatest risk of further major flooding.
Coastal New England, including Boston, will also see bands of heavy rain Wednesday night, but the storm should move quickly enough to prevent severe flooding.
The storm will begin to weaken late Wednesday night, and the risk of flooding will be significantly reduced as rainfall becomes more dispersed and less intense overnight.
A localized heavy rain risk level 1/4 has been issued for Thursday from Boston to coastal Maine as heavier rain continues.
