Environment

Nor'Easter Slams New York

by Jordan Yerman | April 15, 2007 at 03:19 pm

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New York City, with its finely interwoven infrastructures, is highly sensitive to weather changes. Heat waves blow out power stations, ice storms cripple mass transit, and heavy winds and rain shut down the three international airports that serve NYC. Some of the heaviest rains on record on Sunday and Monday, and it's not expected to let up anytime soon.

Click here to check out our slideshow of the nastiness -- and feel free to post your own!

Airlines canceled 300 flights Sunday as a hard-blowing nor'easter gathered strength along the East Coast and threatened to deliver some of the worst shore flooding in 14 years.

The storm, already blamed for five deaths on the Plains, also flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia.

The steady rain has caused the cancellation of more than 400 flights at the New York City region's three major airports. Travelers should check with their airline carrier before heading to Kennedy, LaGuardia or Newark Liberty airports.

Tree limbs are down and power is out for 15-hundred Long Island households as the powerful storm swept up the coast, threatening widespread coastal flooding.

Meteorologists expected sustained wind of 40 mph and a storm surge of 3 to 5 feet, a combination that could cause as much coastal damage to Long Island as a winter storm which wreaked havoc there in late 1992, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said.

New York City opened nine emergency storm shelters in flood-prone locations, and ferry service to Fire Island was canceled due to the storm.

More than 2 inches of rain fell in the New York region by 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon, and forecasters predict a total of 4 to 6 inches by the storm's end this evening.