Nor’easter causes problems from New Jersey to New England
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BOSTON (AP) -- Residents of coastal communities in the Northeast slogged through floodwaters for a second day as a powerful nor’easter pummeled the shoreline Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes.
Tidal surges swamped low-lying neighborhoods in New Jersey while wind gusts toppled trees on New York’s Long Island, damaging homes and bringing down utility poles.
In the New Jersey beach town of Sea Bright, each high tide brought a new round of flooding. “It’s not like a one-time occurrence,” said Caroline Virenius, whose garage filled with about a foot of water. “It’s getting wet again and again.”
The slow-moving storm, which killed a New York City housing authority worker when a tree fell Saturday, was expected to linger through Sunday with heavy rain, strong winds and dangerous surf all the way to New England.
Extreme amounts of rain -- more than 4 inches since Friday in some spots in New Jersey -- combined with a surging ocean led to flooding amounts not seen for close to a decade in places used to dealing with high water, residents said.
The nor’easter triggered memories of Superstorm Sandy, which left behind over $60 billion in damage across the eastern U.S. in 2012. While this storm’s impact has been nowhere near that, it could be the first of several along the East Coast this fall because of an El Niño climate pattern that’s disrupting this year’s weather.
Well over 100,000 customers were without power across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic at times on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. The most widespread outages were in counties along the coast from New Jersey to Connecticut.
Numerous flights were canceled or delayed up and down the coast. More than 250 flights had been canceled at Boston Logan International Airport by late Sunday morning as wind gusts reached 40 mph, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority.