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At least 23 people have died due to torrential rains, floods and strong winds as the remnant of Hurricane Ida passed through the northeastern United States, most of them in the state of New Jersey.
Fourteen of the dead have been reported in New Jersey, of which five were in the same apartment complex in the town of Elizabeth, and nine other victims have been recorded in New York, mainly in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, including a 2-year-old boy, said NBC channel.
New York Police Chief Dermot Shea reported this morning that eight of the nine deaths have occurred “in residential homes and basements” in the Big Apple, in addition to one person who died after a traffic accident on the road through Central Park.
Thousands of people have had to be evacuated from areas of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut due to the floods that the remains of Hurricane Ida, already downgraded to a storm, have caused in the area, with rains that authorities have described as historic and that have set records.
The water flooded basements of buildings and even trapped people in their homes, as was the case of a 22-year-old man and his mother who died in a basement in Queens, according to ABC7, or of an elderly man who was in his vehicle in Passaic (New Jersey).
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who declared a state of emergency Wednesday night, told a news conference Thursday that President Joe Biden, has offered federal assistance in assessing the damage and called for “money to flow” as soon as possible to devastated homes and businesses.
The storms are part of the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which, now downgraded to a storm, has crossed the eastern part of the country since it entered the state of Mississippi and Louisiana, where it caused severe flooding and at least six deaths.
In New York City, almost all subway lines were suspended as flooding was caused by floodwaters and cascades of water falling from station stairways and tunnel ceilings, incidents recorded by citizens and posted today on social networks.
