More than 900,000 customers were without power in the Northeast on Monday as a major storm battered parts of the region with hurricane-force winds and torrential rain.
The power outages spanned several states — including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire — as the coastal storm made its way toward the Greater Boston area early Monday morning.
New Hampshire and Massachusetts accounted for the bulk of the outages with 227,242 and 232,832 customers without power, respectively.
Passengers at LaGuardia Airport in New York City were experiencing delays up to two hours over the weekend, according to FlightAware, which estimated that more than 250 U.S. flights had been canceled due to the storm.
Major Northeast cities were hit with dangerous flash floods — including areas near Albany, NY — as the storm brought as much as 5.40 inches of rain to some areas, meteorologist said.
Parts of New Jersey, northwest Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were all under flash-flood warnings.
Meteorologists said the excessive rain could cause rivers to rise throughout the week, but they did not expect any major river flooding.
Wind gusts totaled more than 80 miles per hour in parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, ripping down trees and knocking down power lines. Flash flood and high wind warnings were issued across the region.
On Sunday, a motorist in Newark said he got in high water in the city’s east ward and was forced to escape through his car window..
“I didn’t know it was that deep … just put the window down and got out,” he told ABC’s New York station WABC.
Separately, a mother in Kearny, N.J., located about 15 minutes east of Newark, said she and her son had to be rescued from their car by boat on Sunday as rain fell faster than the roads could handle, WABC reported.
The powerful storm was intensified by moisture and wind from the remnants of Tropical Storm Philippe, which caused a couple of tornadoes and damages in areas of Miami-Dade and Palm Beach on Saturday. Philippe, which packed maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, is expected to become a post-tropical cyclone by Monday night.
The coastal storm is forecast to wind down for most of the northeast on late Monday morning.
“The threat for widespread flash flooding has passed for most – with exception being in extreme northern New England, like New Hampshire and Maine,” ABC Meteorologist Daniel Manzo said Monday. “The threat for very high winds is also winding down, with the exception being extreme northern New England, and northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.”
He said wind gusts could come in as high as 50 mph in the Greater NYC area through much of Monday.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Daniel Manzo contributed to this report.
