New York City commuters are expected to face some delays on Tuesday morning after heavy rain and flash floods overnight disrupted subway and train services and inundated major roads in the region.
The severe weather prompted the authorities to declare a state of emergency in New Jersey on Monday night and set off flash flood warnings from Virginia to Pennsylvania. The National Weather Service said heavy rain would continue falling across the eastern seaboard on Tuesday, though the skies over New York were expected to clear.
Floodwaters gushed into some New York subway stations and disrupted some signaling systems on Monday night, forcing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to suspend service on some lines. However, early Tuesday, it said there were no weather-related closures of bus, ferry and subway services.
The authorities have warned of residual delays, however. Commuters from New Jersey may face half-hour delays on some NJ Transit trains, though all eight rail lines were running. Sections of major roads in New Jersey were also flooded on Monday night, and it was uncertain if all sections would be open to traffic in time for the commute.
The storm evoked memories of similar transit disruptions in the last two years, including the intense rain that shut down half of New York’s subway system in September 2023. In August last year, heavy rain flooded several highways and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The M.T.A. has said its infrastructure is not built to handle increasingly extreme weather, especially flash floods.
The slow speed of this week’s storms and the unusually hot and humid air have exacerbated the high flood risk between New Jersey and Washington, forecasters said.
“The concern is one storm will follow another, after another, and multiple rounds over areas that can’t handle that much rain, all falling in a short amount of time,” said Joe Wegman, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Two cities in Virginia, Colonial Heights and Petersburg, were at risk of “catastrophic” flash flooding until Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service, which warned people to move to higher ground.
Despite the widespread flooding, there were no reports of any casualties overnight.
