NEW YORK — A week that started with deadly tornadoes ripping through the Midwest and South is ending with rain falling in almost biblical volumes in some states.
The major storm system causing the problems moved northward
Thursday after causing 37 deaths and cutting a wide swath of destruction
through Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi earlier in the week, and
then deluging the Florida Panhandle and the Alabama shore Wednesday.
Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York reported heavy
downpours, and television stations broadcast images of flooded cars and
streets severely damaged by the water.
“The storm system that brought heavy rain to parts of the
eastern U.S. over the past couple of days will continue to produce
showers and thunderstorms from parts of the Mid-Atlantic southward to
the Southeast coast on Thursday,” the National Weather Service reported.
“The system will slowly move off the Mid-Atlantic coast by Friday
morning.”
As of 9:44 a.m., EDT, the storm had dumped 5.12 inches on New York’s Central Park. Parts of Nassau County got nearly 6 inches.
Commuters in New York had a tough ride into the city
Thursday morning; a retaining wall at an apartment building collapsed in
a mudslide, putting two tracks on the Hudson Line out of service. Speed
restrictions were in place on a third rail line as crews worked to
repair the track. Meanwhile, cars got stuck in flooded roads Wednesday
night and had to be towed by police through the day.
The severe weather began on Sunday as tornadoes formed in
Oklahoma. One person died there, and the inclement weather then spread
to Arkansas, where 15 deaths were reported.
In all, at least 65 tornadoes hit the United States as a
result of the storm system, according to a preliminary estimate from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At least 37 deaths in
eight states were blamed on the storm.
At least 16 states, most in the South and the Midwest, were hit by the storm system in some way, officials said.
After the tornadoes, fierce rain hammered Florida and
Alabama in what officials described as a deluge that occurs perhaps once
every 25 years. Pensacola, Florida, saw about 22 inches, about a third
of its annual rainfall, in a 24-hour period.
There was no immediate damage estimates from the widespread
damage destruction, which included toppled buildings, roads blown apart
and vehicles destroyed.
Governors in the affected states have issued declarations of emergency and are expected to seek federal aid.
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