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The death toll from flooding caused early Thursday morning in the northeastern United States by the tails of Hurricane Ida rose to 42 after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced that 23 people had died in that region alone.
“Most of these deaths were individuals who were trapped in their vehicles by flooding,” Murphy said on Twitter.
As reported by authorities and local media so far, another 12 people died in New York City due to the accumulation of water, 3 in New York’s Westchester County, 3 in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and one in Connecticut.
In New York, most of the deaths occurred in Queens County, and include a 2-year-old boy.
Unlike New Jersey, in the Big Apple, many of the deceased were trapped in their homes in the basements of buildings.
Meanwhile, authorities in Westchester, north of New York City, reported at least three deaths, one of them after his car became trapped in the retaining fences of the Hutchinson River Parkway.
In Pennsylvania, Montgomery County authorities reported this morning that there have been three storm-related deaths, including a woman who died when a tree struck a house, with the worst of the damage occurring in the southeastern part of the state.
In the aftermath of the historic storm, New York, which declared a state of emergency on Wednesday night, was still trying to get its subway up and running, which was paralyzed by significant flooding and cascades of water pouring down entrance stairs and tunnel ceilings.
Given the situation, President Joe Biden has offered federal assistance to assess the damage and get “money flowing” as quickly as possible to homes and businesses devastated by this phenomenon that has brought echoes of Hurricane Sandy.
