Northeast U.S. pummelled by wind and floods from deadly nor'easter

New York City housing authority worker died after falling from tree

Residents of coastal communities in the U.S. northeast slogged through floodwaters for a second day as a powerful nor'easter pummelled the shoreline Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes.

Tidal surges swamped low-lying neighbourhoods in New Jersey while wind gusts toppled trees on New York's Long Island, damaging homes and bringing down utility poles.

In the New Jersey beach town of Sea Bright, each high tide brought a new round of flooding. "It's not like a one-time occurrence," said Caroline Virenius, whose garage filled with about a foot of water. "It's getting wet again and again."

The slow-moving storm, which killed a New York City housing authority worker when a tree fell Saturday, was expected to linger through Sunday with heavy rain, strong winds and dangerous surf all the way to New England.

Extreme amounts of rain — more than 10 centimetres since Friday in some spots in New Jersey — combined with a surging ocean led to flooding amounts not seen for close to a decade in places used to dealing with high water, residents said.

The nor'easter triggered memories of Superstorm Sandy, which left behind over $60 billion US in damage across the eastern U.S. in 2012. While this storm's impact has been nowhere near that, it could be the first of several along the East Coast this fall because of an El Niño climate pattern that's disrupting this year's weather.

Images of waves crashing into sea walls and onto beaches raised concerns about coastal erosion.

Powerful storm causes widespread flooding, outages in northeast U.S.

Well over 100,000 customers were without power across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic at times on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. The most widespread outages were in counties along the coast from New Jersey to Connecticut.

Numerous flights were cancelled or delayed up and down the coast. More than 250 flights had been cancelled at Boston Logan International Airport by late Sunday morning as wind gusts reached 64 km/h, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority.

The worst of the remaining rainfall was expected Sunday from northern New Jersey into southern New England.

While the storm was gradually weakening, tidal flooding would stay through high-tide cycles Sunday night, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md.

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In New York City, water a few inches deep filled streets in the Howard Beach neighbourhood but didn't deter residents from venturing out for coffee Sunday morning.

Carole Ann Palmer, who owns Jingles Bait and Tackle in North Beach Haven, N.J., said this was the worst flooding she's seen in 10 years.

"Yesterday, I was like, oh my God, it just keeps getting higher and higher," said Palmer, who lives above the store.

The front step was swept away in the storm and she saw neighbours kayaking through the streets on Saturday.

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Her biggest problem on Sunday was taking her two puppies outside to relieve themselves. She had to put on waders and carry them to dry land.

"I take one at the time, carry them across the street so they can do their business and then come back, dry them off and then do the other one. It's a workout," Palmer said.

N.J. community better prepared after Sandy

Bernard Dowd waded through tidal water Sunday to get to his Sea Bright home, a day after he got back from work to find his basement "filled up like a swimming pool."

But he said the situation around his neighbourhood likely would have been much worse if it weren't for new rules requiring homeowners to raise the height of their homes in the wake of Sandy, which devastated the community.

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He also noticed that many around the community had lined their home and businesses with sandbags — something he wishes he would have done.

"I'm always thinking they are hyping the storm," he said.