Flooded Streets and Travel Delays as Widespread Storms Move Through the Northeast

Here are the key things to know:

• New Jersey was under a state of emergency, and Gov. Kathy Hochul declared the same for New York City and surrounding counties.
• After Thursday’s storms, Friday is expected to be much cooler and more dry, forecasters said.

Parts of New York flooded early in the afternoon.

In New York City, traffic cameras operated by the Department of Transportation showed extensive flooding on the Clearview Expressway in Queens after a storm moved through in the afternoon. At the northern edge of the flooded area, near 35th Street, a car was submerged nearly to its roof.

At 3:30 p.m., an emergency responder in a red life vest could be seen opening all four doors and the trunk of the sedan, but he found no one. The rescuer next swam to a partially submerged semi-truck. He opened the passenger door, helped someone inside exit the cab, and together they swam to the side of the road.

An hour later, traffic was beginning to return to the northbound lanes of the Clearview Expressway, north of 35th Street in Queens. The southbound lanes remained blocked by tow trucks that were working to move a car and a semi-truck that had been stranded by floodwater.

Parts of the F.D.R. Drive were closed for hours but had reopened by 7 p.m.

FloodNet NYC, a map at the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay that is jointly operated by researchers at several of the city’s agencies and universities, showed real-time flooding information. By 4:30 p.m., the highest flooding recorded citywide happened at the corner of Catherine Court and Jewett Avenue on Staten Island, where the water reached a depth of 21.3 inches at 3 p.m.

“Anytime you’re over a foot, yeah, we’re talking a lot of water,” said Brett Branco, the institute’s director.

Flooding swelled in other areas as the storm moved east across the city. At 4 p.m. the water was 9.3 inches deep at the corner of Ditmas Avenue and Westminster Road in Brooklyn, and 8.1 inches deep in the Wingate neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Travel was disrupted along the East Coast.

There were hundreds of weather-related delays and cancellations at airports around New York and along the East Coast as heavy rain coursed down intermittently throughout the day.

Flights to major airports were paused, including to Philadelphia International Airport, La Guardia International Airport, Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport, according to FlightAware, which tracks disruptions.

Among the major domestic carriers, Southwest Airlines had the most operational disruption, with 45 percent of its daily flights, or more than 2,000 flights, delayed as of early evening.