Northeast hit with record floods from remnants of Hurricane Ida

QUEENS, N.Y. (NBC) – At least 22 people were killed as the remnants of Hurricane Ida battered New York and New Jersey with tornadoes, record rain and flooding that left the area deluged and under states of emergency Thursday.

The wind-driven downpour shattered rainfall records and prompted an unprecedented flash flood emergency for New York City.

The story with Hurricane Ida in Louisiana was the wind. In New York City, the remnants of that hurricane, the story is the rain.

One gas station in Queens came crashing down around 10:00 Wednesday night when the rain was coming down super hard and heavy. There was a car underneath the roof. The owner of that car, thankfully, was inside and was uninjured.

The National Weather Service did something it rarely does. First, it issued a flash flood warning. It then upgraded that to a flash flood emergency in New York City. They only do that when it’s life-threatening.

There are biblical images of rainwater pouring into subway stations. People were trapped, in fact, on subways. 100 people had to be rescued and still Thursday the subways are not back up and running or they’re running very slowly because of the damage done.

The situation is equally bad in New Jersey. The governor there has declared a state of emergency. The rivers rose so quickly people actually floated away in their cars and they had to be rescued from their cars.

There are at least 22 deaths so far associated with this storm, Hurricane Ida. The remnants of Hurricane Ida continue to wreak havoc all the way up the northeast.