Powerful storm slams Northeast with flooding, power outages
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Cars are submerged in flood water on a street after a large rainstorm on Dec. 18 in Elmsford, New York. Photo: Kena Betancur/Getty Images
An unusually intense storm for this time of year caused damaging coastal flooding, inland flash flooding and power outages from Florida to Maine on Monday into early Tuesday.
Threat level: The storm, currently slamming New England with winds of 65 mph, has cut power to about 420,000 customers in Maine alone, about half the customers tracked there, according to PowerOutage.us.
- At least four people died as a result of the storm's impacts, the Associated Press reports.
- Heavy rains accompanied the coastal storm, with amounts as high as a foot in South Carolina, and three to five inches falling metro New York City, where high winds temporarily shut down the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island Monday morning.
- Another top hazard with this event has been coastal flooding as high winds push water towards the shoreline.
State of play: Widespread flooding occurred Sunday in Charleston, S.C., which recorded its fourth-highest tide level on record. One fatality was associated with the storm there.
- This demonstrates the ease with which even non-tropical storms can bring damaging flooding as coastal lands sink and sea levels increase in response to human-caused climate change.
Catch up quick: The National Weather Service forecast office in Boston warned Monday of significant coastal flooding along the south-facing coastline of southern New England, including Rhode Island and parts of Cape Cod and the Islands.
- "As high tide approaches (12pm - 1pm), significant coastal flooding is expected along the entire Rhode Island coastline, including towns along Narragansett Bay," the NWS stated on X, formerly Twitter.
- Water levels in Providence are forecast to reach 10 feet, which has not happened since Hurricane Bob in 1991, the NWS stated.
- Winds gusted to 90 mph atop Blue Hill Monday, located just south of Boston, on Monday morning. Logan Airport in Boston recorded a wind gust of 68 mph, as well, at about 11 am.
- Several aircraft landing in Boston were diverted to other airports due to the strong winds.
- Reports on Tuesday indicated flash flooding damage to roadways and infrastructure around Sunday River and Sugarloaf Mountains in Maine, both of which typically see an influx of skiers over the holidays.
Between the lines: Typically, a storm taking this track and at this intensity in mid-December would produce a significant amount of snow, especially inland.
- But this year, there is a lack of cold air for storms to tap into, as unusually mild air floods Canada and much of the U.S.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with new developments and a new photo.
