Jan Wesner Childs
Tropical Storm Elsa moved into the Northeast Friday morning, dumping rain and flooding streets in New York and Connecticut.
“Our main challenge right now is we received a lot of rain," New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said in a Friday morning update. "Around 2 inches per hour had been coming down. So there’s significant flooding around the city, a lot of streets we recommend you don’t drive through or walk through.”
Authorities responded to multiple calls reporting vehicle crashes and stranded motorists in Fairfield and New Haven counties.
Several roadways in New Haven were closed, and video posted to social media showed water pouring over streets in the city's downtown area.
The state Department of Transportation warned motorists on Interstate 91 north of New Haven near Rocky Hill to be prepared for lane closures as water covered the roadway. A downed tree was blocking Route 138 further east in Sprague.
In New York, flash flood warnings were in effect for Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island as the storm swept through.
Flash flood warnings also covered parts of the Boston area. Wind gusts up to 60 mph were possible along the Massachusetts coast.
(MORE: What's Next for Elsa?)
About 28,000 power outages were being reported in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut as of 11 a.m. EDT, according to poweroutage.us.
The public health department in New York City suspended mobile COVID-19 vaccinations and testing until Saturday morning.
The rain in the city came a day after downpours shut down streets, stranded motorists and deluged parts of the city's subway system.
“The subway system is prepared to take water. It’s made to .. it has drains and pumps. So we assume that there’s going to be some level of water and rain," Demetrius Crichlow, acting senior vice president of the NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority, told The Weather Channel in an interview Friday morning. “In this instance we got an enormous amount of water within a very short time.”
Crichlow said one line was also shut down when a tree fell over the tracks.
Elsa left a deadly and devastating track across several states before heading north. Hardest hit were North Florida, where man died when a tree fell on him in Jacksonville and South Georgia, where several people were injured when a tornado hit a campground on a U.S. Navy base.
The storm also brought flooding, downed trees and possible tornadoes in the Carolinas.
(WATCH: Security Cam Shows Tornado Roaring Through in Jacksonville)
Elsa made landfall at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday near Steinhatchee, in Taylor County, Florida, about 75 miles southeast of Tallahassee, with 65 mph winds.
The storm, upgraded to a hurricane Tuesday night before weakening again, brought rain and wind to the Keys and Southwest Florida as it moved into the Gulf and up the Florida coast.
Three people, one in St. Lucia and two in the Dominican Republic, were killed as Elsa moved across the Caribbean over the weekend. The storm crossed over western Cuba on Monday.
Elsa is the fifth named Atlantic storm and first hurricane of the 2021 season. It is the earliest E-named storm on record in the Atlantic.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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