Event Summary

On Friday October 18th, a strong low pressure system developed on a cold front over the DelMarVa Peninsula. With a high pressure system in place across Northern New England, the low slowly intensified and moved slowly off the Southern New Jersey Coast during Saturday October 19th. The increasing difference in pressures caused strong and gusty east winds, which also transported abundant moisture from the Atlantic Ocean across the region. Heavy flood producing rains along with minor to major coastal flooding occurred. Rain began during the early morning on the 19th and ended shortly after midnight on the 20th. Three to five inches of rain fell, with isolated higher amounts. Heavy rain caused serious widespread street and poor drainage flooding: Rte. 218 between Cornwall and Highland Falls (Orange County) was closed due to flooding. In Westchester County, flooding caused the closures of the Hutchinson River Parkway between Wolfs Lane and East 3rd Street and the Bronx River Parkway between Sprain Brook Parkway and Scarsdale Road. Serious street flooding was reported on many other roads including South Street (around the South Street Seaport) in Manhattan, the Belt Parkway in Kings County and the Long Island Expressway along Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Heavy rain also caused river flooding: The Mahwah River at Suffern was above its' 4 foot flood stage from 8:30 pm on the 19th through 6:30 pm on the 20th. Its' crest stage was 5.22 feet at 4:30 am on the 20th. In Queens, while a plane was landing in heavy rain and strong gusty winds, it hit some approaching lights on the side of the runway. After that, the nosegear collapsed and it started to skid and came to a stop at the east end of the airport. Four of 63 people on Delta Flight 554 suffered minor injuries while they evacuated the plane. Flushing and Springfield Gardens, two low-lying areas with inadequate drainage systems were particularly hit hard by heavy rains. Serious flooding of basements and first floors caused damaged to 226 homes in Flushing and 70 homes in Springfield Gardens. Numerous cars were also damaged in flood waters. Here are selected rainfall amounts for: New York City: from 3.10 inches at Kennedy Airport to 4.78 inches in Northeast Flushing. At Central Park, 4.35 inches was measured, which set a new daily record. Westchester County: from 2.37 inches at Ossining to 4.98 inches at Dobbs Ferry. Nassau County: from 1.66 inches at Levittown to 4.90 inches at Lynbrook. Suffolk County: from 2.10 inches at Farmingdale Airport to 5.86 inches at Riverhead.