Biblical Flooding, Severe Storms Leave At Least 22 Dead In Northeast

UPDATE:

ABC News reports at least 22 people have died in relation to remnants of Hurricane Ida hitting the northeast overnight.

The casualties include five residents of the Oakwood Plaza apartment complex in Elizabeth, New Jersey, who were all found Thursday (September 2) morning.

The New York Police Department also confirmed two people -- a 43-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man -- were found unconscious and unresponsive when the department responded to a flooding condition at a partially collapsed building in Queens Thursday morning.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene, while the woman was transported to a local hospital, where she later died.

Additionally, a 50-year-old male, a 48-year-old female and a 2-year-old male were found dead at a second flooded location in Queens.

A 48-year-old female was also found unconscious and unresponsive at a separate location in Queens before being transported to Forest Hills Hospital, where she was pronounced dead

An 86-year-old woman was found dead at her Queens apartment due to flooding, NYPD confirmed.

A 66-year-old man was found unresponsive and unconscious at his Brooklyn apartment and pronounced dead at the scene.

"FDNY members rescued hundreds of people citywide during the storm, removing occupants from trapped vehicles on flooded roadways and removing New Yorkers from subway stations," department spokesman Frank Dwyer told ABC News.

Central Park reported a record 3.15 inches of rain during a one-hour span between 8:51 p.m. and 9:51 p.m. on Wednesday.

New York issued a citywide travel ban just prior to 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, which was in effect until 5:00 a.m.

-----------------

At least nine people in New York and New Jersey have died after remnants of Hurricane Ida hit the northeast on Wednesday (September 2) night and Thursday (September 2) morning.

CNN reports the victims include a 2-year-old; an 86-year-old woman who lived in Corona, Queens found in the basement by her son just before midnight; an elderly man in his 70s who was retrieved from floodwaters after his vehicle was overtaken by water in Passaic, New Jersey; and several others throughout various boroughs of New York City.

New York City's subway system flooded in 46 locations, with an estimated 15-20 subway trains being stranded due to a "regional emergency" that "hit the entire transportation system," Janno Lieber, the acting chair and CEO of New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority confirmed to CNN.

Lieber said hundreds of trains were operating within the subway system when "one-hour historic rainfall overtook everybody."

The New York City Fire Department and New York Police Department worked in tandem to successfully rescue all subway passengers without any injuries reported in what "took a couple of hours," according to Lieber.

Approximately 65 MTA busses were blocked or stuck during the storm, but Lieber confirmed "we're bringing service up" and a number of lines had already been restored as of Thursday morning.

Hurricane Ida initially made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana on Sunday (August 29) afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane before being downgraded to a tropical storm early Monday morning (August 30) and later a tropical depression on Monday afternoon as it moved through the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The National Hurricane Center confirmed Ida reached wind speeds of 150 MPH, tying Hurricane Katrina on the 16th anniversary of the devastating storm, as well as Laura (2020) and the Last Island Hurricane (1856) as the most powerful storms to ever hit the state.