Nor’easter floods Northeast coast, cuts power and leaves one person dead

A nor’easter battered the US Northeast through Sunday, September 27, flooding coastal neighborhoods, cutting electricity and disrupting travel. A New York City Housing Authority worker died after a tree fell in Brooklyn on Saturday. Although forecasters expected the storm to weaken Sunday night, National Weather Service notices showed that vulnerable shorelines could still flood into Monday.

The Associated Press reported that more than 100,000 customers across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic lost power at times on Sunday, citing PowerOutage.us. The Guardian later reported about 110,500 households still without electricity, including more than 21,000 in New York and about 11,940 in New Jersey. Those figures are snapshots from different points in the storm, not a final tally of affected customers.

Flooding returns with the tides

In Sea Bright, New Jersey, each high tide brought fresh water into streets and homes, according to AP reporting. Resident Caroline Virenius said her garage had filled with about a foot of water. ‘It’s getting wet again and again,’ she told the AP. The agency also reported flooding in low-lying New Jersey neighborhoods and trees toppled by wind on Long Island.

The Guardian described flooding, rough surf, strong winds and dangerous rip currents along a broad stretch of coast from North Carolina to New England. On the Jersey Shore, residents cleared debris between high tides after floodwater entered streets and homes. Falling trees and power lines caused further disruption inland, while Boston and the New York City area were among the affected regions.

A separate Weather Service notice kept a coastal flood warning in force for Ocean County, New Jersey, until 2 p.m. Monday. It forecast around one foot of inundation along back bays, including Barnegat Bay and Manahawkin Bay, and warned that roads and low-lying property could flood. Eastern Monmouth County remained under a coastal flood advisory for the same period. These notices describe expected conditions, not a count of properties already damaged.

A death in Brooklyn and wider disruption

The worker killed in Brooklyn was 56, the Guardian reported. Police said he was pronounced dead at Brookdale University Hospital after a tree fell on him in a parking lot. Authorities had not immediately determined whether wind caused the tree to fall. The available reports do not establish a final death toll or the full extent of storm damage.

In Queens, another fallen tree brought down power lines in the Glendale area, the Guardian reported. Firefighters evacuated a nearby building as a precaution, and no injuries were reported in that incident. New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency covering eight counties, including the city’s five boroughs and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester. Eight New Jersey counties also remained under an emergency declaration issued before the storm arrived.

Air travel was affected as well. The Guardian said FlightAware recorded more than 5,000 delays and nearly 550 cancellations across the United States, while Boston Logan International Airport experienced a temporary ground delay. The Federal Aviation Administration advised passengers to check with their airlines. The AP reported that more than 250 flights had been canceled at Boston Logan by late Sunday morning as gusts reached 40 mph, citing the Massachusetts Port Authority.

What remains uncertain

The Weather Service expected the nor’easter to weaken Sunday night, according to the Guardian, but heavy rain could persist into Monday in parts of the mid-Atlantic and New England. The AP reported that officials in New Jersey and New York warned another high tide late Monday could bring more flooding. Forecasts indicate risk; they do not establish that later flooding occurred.

The number of customers without electricity could change as utilities restore service or new faults occur. Neither the duration of individual outages nor a final regional damage total was established in the available reporting. Residents of vulnerable coastal areas faced a more immediate concern: even as some flood warnings were canceled, local Weather Service statements and advisories continued to identify places at risk through Monday.

The storm follows earlier nor’easter flooding and emergency declarations in New York and New Jersey. The current reports describe a continuing hazard rather than a single flood peak: in communities such as Sea Bright, residents had to contend with water returning on successive tides while crews worked through outages and debris.