In the last 10 days, New York City has seen a blackout in Manhattan, power failures in Brooklyn and Queens and an oppressive three-day heat wave.
Then, on Monday night, a thunderstorm brought weary New Yorkers fierce winds and heavy rains that wreaked havoc, causing flash floods across the city and suburbs.
Parts of the region were still flooded on Tuesday morning, especially in New Jersey, where fire departments and emergency agencies cautioned drivers to avoid inundated areas.
In Hackensack, N.J., the city’s fire department said it had rescued multiple people early Tuesday whose cars were stuck in the water.
The winds, and in some cases, hail, left more than 200,000 customers without power in New Jersey as of 8 a.m. on Tuesday, according to utility companies there. In a statement on Monday evening, Gov. Philip D. Murphy warned that it could be “up to several days” before electricity was fully restored.
Three inches of rain fell on parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the National Weather Service said.
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service said that scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms would still be moving across the New York City area on Tuesday morning. A flash flood warning was still in effect until Monday noon for Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County in Long Island.
On Monday evening, floodwaters blocked parts of the Long Island Expressway and Brooklyn Queens Expressway, officials said.
The downpours also turned city streets into rushing streams in parts of the city, particularly in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
In New York City, after Con Edison crews spent Monday working to restore power to the tens of thousands who lost it during the heat wave, more than 6,000 customers were without power after the storms, including in the parts of Brooklyn affected by Sunday night’s power failure.
Subway stations, never impermeable to the elements, were inundated, with some seeming to sprout waterfalls more reminiscent of amusement parks than mass transit.
