Nor’easter floods US Northeast, cuts power and disrupts hundreds of flights

A powerful nor’easter pounded the northeastern United States on Sept 26 and 27, flooding coastal communities, cutting electricity to tens of thousands of customers and forcing hundreds of flight cancellations from New York to Boston.¹³⁶⁷

Flooding across coastal communities

The storm intensified on Saturday, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to a region that includes New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Forecasters expected its effects to continue through the weekend across the Mid-Atlantic and New England, with major coastal flooding possible over several high-tide cycles.¹³⁴⁷

The National Weather Service urged people near the shore to act quickly because roads, homes and businesses in low-lying areas could be inundated. New York officials forecast wind gusts of as much as 55mph, or 86km/h, while nearly 13cm of rain was expected in parts of Massachusetts, including Boston.³⁴⁵

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said shoreline communities in New York City and on Long Island were bearing the brunt of the storm. According to Al Jazeera, New York and New Jersey’s governors issued emergency declarations for counties projected to see the harshest conditions, among them New York City.³⁶

Floodwater covered streets and entered some homes in Surf City, New Jersey. At Surf City Marina, workers had secured docks, shifted equipment and moved trucks and forklifts to the highest available ground, but by Saturday morning the vehicles were almost surrounded. Marina owner Kenny Formica also received reports from customers about missing boats and Jet Skis.¹²⁵

On Long Island, some residents used kayaks on flooded streets. In Ocean City, canal water rose into backyards, while authorities elsewhere warned that flooding could close roads. The storm’s coincidence with high tide added to the risks facing coastal and low-lying areas.¹³⁶⁷

Power and transport disruption

On Saturday, power cuts affected over 100,000 utility customers, though the figure fluctuated as repair crews responded. Al Jazeera reported that outages affecting homes and businesses had fallen from 119,000 to more than 88,000 on Sept 26. At 19:00, Deutsche Welle reported about 95,000 people without power across six states.¹²³⁶

Air travel was disrupted across the region. By Sept 26, cancellations affected over 200 flights serving airports in Boston, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and New York. By the following day, FlightAware recorded 439 cancelled flights involving US airports and 2,459 delays, including 253 cancellations at Boston Logan International Airport.¹³

JetBlue, United and American issued alerts allowing affected passengers to change flights without fees. The Federal Aviation Administration advised travellers to confirm flight status with their airlines.³⁴⁵

Public events called off

The weather also forced cancellations across entertainment and sport. Ed Sheeran called off Friday and Saturday concerts at Gillette Stadium near Boston. Also called off were New York’s Global Citizen and All Things Go festivals and Maryland’s Oceans Calling Festival.¹³⁶

The Global Citizen event in Central Park had been scheduled to include Lenny Kravitz, Lauryn Hill, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey and Alicia Keys. Organisers said it was the first cancellation in the event’s 14-year history.³⁴

Nor’easters are large cyclones that typically form off the eastern US coast and take their name from their northeasterly winds. They can occur in any season but are more frequent from autumn to early spring, and commonly bring strong gusts with heavy rain or snow. Forecasters said this storm had arrived earlier in the season than is usual for a major system.¹³⁴⁶