Historic and deadly Northeast floods trap residents, destroy roads

Monday afternoon, some parking lots and backyards were filling with water, and downtown businesses were rushing to elevate valuables and turn on pumps to clear water from basements. The Red Cross opened a shelter the nearby town of Barre.

As the storms developed over the Northeast on Sunday, floodwaters quickly made many roads impassable from northeastern Pennsylvania into the Hudson Valley. The torrents were a product of a slow-moving storm system trapped between areas of strong high pressure over Greenland and western Canada and fueled by a steady flow of tropical moisture feeding in from the south.

By early Monday, the most intense rain poured on Vermont, an inland state less known for extreme weather.

“This is an all-hands-on-deck response,” Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) said at a news briefing, adding that he would be requesting a federal disaster declaration from the White House. “We have not seen rainfall like this since [Hurricane] Irene, and in some places it will surpass even that.”

State emergency management officials said they were investigating unconfirmed reports that one person was swept away Monday morning in Londonderry, in the central portion of the state. Teams used boats to rescue 19 people from their homes and helped two dozen others to evacuate as flooding devastated the Londonderry and Weston areas, Mike Cannon, of the Vermont Urban Search and Rescue Team, said Monday.

Flooding closed about two dozen roads across the state, and emergency crews made multiple rescues, according to the Vermont State Police. Ten people were rescued from high water at a campsite near Andover, the Weather Service reported.

The flooding ravaged ski resorts, forcing Killington Resort to close for golfing and biking at least through Tuesday after floods sent mud flowing down its slopes. Okemo, a resort in Ludlow, said it would remain closed until Thursday.

Extreme rainfall destroys roads, kills one in New York

In New York, the most intense rains hit the Hudson Valley on Sunday afternoon and evening, killing at least one person. The 35-year-old woman was swept away in the town of Highlands while trying to rescue her dog, authorities said; her body was found in a ravine, Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus said.

The water destroyed roads and washed away key infrastructure and homes, state Sen. James Skoufis (D), who represents the area, told The Post in an email. Orange and Rockland counties recorded six to eight inches of rain, according to Weather Service data.

Flash flood warnings were issued for New York City overnight Sunday, with officials asking residents of basement apartments to move to a higher floor and for all New Yorkers to stay off roads. But the city avoided the worst of the rainfall.

The last severe deluge and flooding in New York City were products of Hurricane Ida in 2021 and linked to 44 deaths in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, 16 of them in New York City. The city’s inadequate infrastructure and drainage system were major factors in its vulnerability to flooding, authorities acknowledged at the time.

Here’s what made the New York City flooding in 2021 so devastating

This weather affected travel along the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak said it temporarily halted services between New York City and Albany, while Newark and LaGuardia airports reported flight disruptions.

The most significant impacts occurred on roadways, where many motorists were caught in floodwaters unprepared.

State troopers helped stranded motorists on the Palisades Interstate Parkway in Rockland County, said Steven Nevel, a spokesman for the New York State Police, who reported a “terrible” situation, with roads crumbling. Images shared by the state police showed submerged vehicles on the highway and damaged roads.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) stressed the dangers of driving in floods as she told reporters that the state might be staring at back-to-back days of flooding.

“My biggest concern,” she said, “is the fact that most people’s lives that are lost during a flood event occur because they’re in their vehicles — not in their homes, but in their vehicles.”

In some areas, such as at West Point, rain came down so quickly it could be considered a “once-in-1,000 year rainfall event,” based on the probability of it occurring in that spot in any given year, meteorologist Craig Ceecee tweeted. In the Northeast, eight inches of rain would be a typical amount of precipitation for the months of June and July.

Ida’s remnants inundate the Northeast, killing more than 40

But because warmer air holds more moisture — a rise in temperature by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) means it can hold 7 percent more water vapor — the threats of extreme rainfall from otherwise mundane summer storms are growing.

In a tweet, Hochul emphasized the role climate change plays in increasingly severe weather. “Make no mistake: This is our new normal,” she wrote. “We are the first generation to feel the impacts of climate change & the last generation with a shot at doing anything about it.”

In Vermont, Montpelier Mayor McCullough said he wasn’t sure how many houses or businesses were expected to flood as the Winooski River surged out of its banks, adding that he thought it would be far fewer than the city’s worst flood events.

But according to the First Street Foundation data, the number of properties at risk from flooding is growing far beyond what the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers to be at risk of 1-in-100-year floods. The foundation estimates there are five times as many.

Kevin Crowe contributed to this report.