Rounds of showers and thunderstorms that in some cases brought more than eight inches of rain to parts of the Northeast on Sunday flooded communities, disrupted traffic and trains and left vehicles stranded on streets.
Several flash flood warnings — meaning that flooding was imminent or happening — were posted on Sunday for parts of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia.
In Westport, Conn., a costal community on the Long Island Sound, reports of rising water levels and people trapped in vehicles began to come in around 8 a.m., said Deputy Chief Matthew Cohen of the Westport Fire Department.
Fire officials swiftly deployed high-water rescue units and the police drove Humvees responding to 911 calls of people in vehicles while searching for others who might be stranded, Chief Cohen said.
Several teams also responded to calls of residents trapped in their homes where basements had flooded and, in some cases, the water reached the ground floor.
By early afternoon, the Fire Department had responded to roughly 125 calls, Chief Cohen said. So far, no one was seriously injured.
“This storm was definitely one of the more significant ones — and we’ve had several superstorms and hurricanes that have come through here,” said Chief Cohen, who has worked for the Fire Department for 25 years.
Rainfall totals exceeded several inches in some communities on Sunday, including 8.5 inches in Montclair, N.J.; 7.45 inches in Stamford, Conn.; 4.34 inches near Rye, N.Y.; 3.97 inches in Port Chester, N.Y.; 2.7 inches at the Long Island MacArthur Airport in Suffolk County on Long Island; and 1.26 inches in Battery Park in Manhattan, according to the National Weather Service.
Kyran Dunn, the acting fire chief in the town of Fairfield, Conn., and Michael Paris, the police chief, said in a phone interview that it was the worst flooding the town had seen in three decades.
“We had a deluge of water and a lot of rain in a short period of time,” Chief Dunn said. “It caused extensive flooding on many of our streets and some basements, and some cars are floating away.”
The officials toured an area along Rooster River and visited a basement where the water was waist high and the furnace was under water.
“These poor people are at their wit’s end,” Chief Dunn said.
Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut said on social media that service on Metro-North Railroad and Amtrak’s New Haven line had been suspended between Norwalk and Bridgeport because of track conditions caused by heavy rain.
“Flash flooding is impacting several areas across Connecticut, including transit service in New Haven,” he said.
On Facebook, the National Weather Service said the hardest-hit areas included northeast New Jersey, parts of Westchester County in New York, and parts of Connecticut along I-95, leading to road closures in some areas.
Flooded roads and stranded vehicles were reported in New Haven, Conn., and video showed flooded business in Middlesex, Conn., according to the Weather Service.
It said it received reports of cars with water up to the windows in Paterson, N.J., and flooded roads and cars in Wayne, N.J.
The threat of flash flooding was expected to decrease by late Sunday afternoon as the heaviest showers and thunderstorms were forecast to move eastward off the coast.
Alexandra E. Petri and Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.
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