The National Weather Service updated the track of Tropical Storm Debby late Wednesday morning and is now predicting a lull for Long Island and the rest of the New York City metropolitan area.
That’s because the weather service expects Debby to pass well west of the region, passing through Pennsylvania on its way down the east coast, and then moving into northern New York State. Meteorologists still expect Long Island, particularly Nassau County, to see additional rainfall due to activity on the outer edges of the storm system, but not nearly as much as was originally forecast, namely “heavy rainfall” and flooding.
That’s good news for New York City and Long Island, which were still recovering Wednesday from a torrential downpour that lasted Tuesday afternoon into the night and brought 5.4 inches (138 mm) of rain to the Bronx – 4.6 inches (118 mm) to Port Washington, 4.3 inches (109 mm) to Copiague, 4.7 inches (119 mm) to Dix Hills, 4.3 inches (109 mm) to West Islip, 4.3 inches (109 mm) to Muttontown and 4.3 inches (109 mm) to Great Neck – while the storm flooded streets and many other low-lying areas, downed trees and caused traffic chaos.
This frontal system, which arrived unexpectedly ahead of the remnants of Debby, brought LaGuardia and Kennedy airports to a standstill on Tuesday and increased the risk of possible flash flooding throughout the region. No major flooding was reported on Wednesday.
Airports were recovering from overnight ground stops. While no cancellations or delays were reported at Long Island MacArthur Airport, a check of Flight Tracker status between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. Wednesday morning showed 98 delayed flights and 63 cancellations at Kennedy Airport, while there were 83 canceled flights and 75 delays to and from LaGuardia during the same period.
The New York City Emergency Management Agency said the Port Authority reported 1,374 cancellations and 974 delays overnight at its three metropolitan area airports — Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark — after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a series of ground stops on Tuesday due to severe weather. Because of those ground stops, as well as severe weather elsewhere in the country, numerous flights en route to New York were diverted.
The National Weather Service reported that the storm dropped 2.63 inches of rain in MacArthur, 1.88 inches in LaGuardia and 0.66 inches in Kennedy.
The weather service said that although significantly less rain than expected is expected on Long Island for Friday and Saturday, that does not mean that all is well in the area.
In fact, the weather service said the probability of precipitation on Thursday remained between 40 and 60 percent, on Friday at 90 percent and on Saturday at 50 percent.
Rainfall amounts, however, were revised down to about 1.5 to 2.5 inches per day on Long Island from an original forecast of 2 to 5 inches or more for Friday and Saturday. Wind forecasts were also revised downward, although the weather service said gusts of up to 30 mph were still possible.
The risks associated with Debby for Nassau and Suffolk have been reduced from medium to low risk, the weather service said.
Overnight, Suffolk police reported several downed trees on residential streets, including in Port Jefferson on Barnum Avenue around 12:45 a.m., in Hauppauge on Old Willets Path near Rutland Gate around 2:05 a.m. and in Melville on Northcote Drive near Haddon Hall around 2:13 a.m.
Nassau police reported no major incidents or road closures Wednesday morning. The Long Island Rail Road reported minor delays.
Maximum temperatures will be between 24 and 27 degrees Celsius until Friday, which represents a clear cooling trend compared to the last few days. According to the weather service, minimum temperatures at night will be between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius.
The storm flooded roads during the evening rush hour on Tuesday, including parts of Sunrise Highway in East Massapequa and Meadowbrook Parkway in Mineola, and knocked down trees in Commack, West Islip and East Hampton. Downed power lines were reported in Massapequa Park and Babylon, Nassau and Suffolk police said.
“In the center of the center”
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said Tuesday night in Brooklyn that the agency had put crews on standby to fix possible problems with tracks, signals and power due to flooding, washouts and fallen trees.
An umbrella does its best to keep two customers out of heavy rain outside Iavarone Brothers, a grocery store in Wantagh, on Tuesday. Photo credit: Jim Staubitser
Governor Kathy Hochul warned Tuesday that the metropolitan area was “directly in the crosshairs” of the impending double storm. For this reason, she activated the state’s emergency operations center for the rest of the week and also called in 100 New York National Guard soldiers stationed at Kennedy Airport, Fort Hamilton and Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach.
“Excessive runoff may cause flooding of rivers, creeks, streams and other low-lying and flood-prone areas,” the weather service said. “Streams and creeks may overflow their banks. Flooding may occur in areas with poor drainage and in urban areas. Extensive flooding of roads and streams and flooding of creeks and rivers is possible.”
The weather service also warned of “life-threatening” surf backflow for anyone entering the surf zone on Long Island. PSEG Long Island reported 35 active outages affecting 526 people late Tuesday, according to the utility’s online outage map.
As a Category 1 hurricane, Debby hit Florida earlier this week, causing severe flooding and killing at least five people.
Authorities said a woman and a 12-year-old died in a storm-related car crash, and a 13-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home, among other things – both incidents occurred near Gainesville, Florida.
In the state of Georgia, authorities said a 19-year-old was killed when a large tree fell on the porch of a house.
With John Asbury
