Powerful Nor'easter Floods Northeast US, Disrupts Travel and Events

More than 40 million people across the northeastern United States braced Friday for an unusually powerful seasonal storm, and by Saturday a slow-moving nor'easter was creeping along the coast, bringing flooding, high winds and power outages to New Jersey, New York and New England, according to CBC and The Straits Times.¹²³

Coastal flooding hits New Jersey

In Surf City, New Jersey, floodwater filled streets and entered some homes, according to CBC. Kenny Formica, owner of Surf City Marina, said he watched water rise inside his building through surveillance cameras; he said water rarely enters the structure, and that the last time it happened was during Hurricane Sandy, which cost his business over $4 million, per CBC. Workers had secured dock lines, moved loose equipment and parked vehicles at the highest point of the property beforehand, but by Saturday morning the marina's trucks and forklifts were nearly surrounded by water, CBC reported.¹

Formica said he woke up to a flurry of texts from customers whose boats and Jet Skis had gone missing. One customer sent him video around 4 a.m. showing a 25-foot boat, weighing about 8,000 pounds and valued at $150,000, blown off its lift. "This is like an 8,000-pound [3.6-tonne] boat and, you know, a $150,000 boat — just gone," Formica said, according to CBC. In Edgewater, New Jersey, floodwaters poured into a crowded parking lot, and social media video showed one vehicle nearly submerged with only its sunroof visible, CBC reported.¹

Travel and events disrupted

Boston Logan International Airport saw hundreds of flight cancellations, and nearly all flights to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket were called off, according to CBC. The US Federal Aviation Administration advised passengers to check its website for updates, saying there was "always a chance for restrictions depending on the weather," per The Straits Times. JetBlue, United and American each issued travel waivers letting customers rebook their flights without paying a fee, The Straits Times reported.¹²

The storm forced sports and entertainment schedules to shift. The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs played a Friday doubleheader in Boston to get ahead of the worst weather, and Major League Baseball shifted the series' final game to the Tampa Bay Rays' home stadium in Florida, according to CBC. Ed Sheeran cancelled his Friday and Saturday concerts at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, both CBC and The Straits Times reported. Several outdoor festivals, including the Global Citizen Festival and Oceans Calling, were also cancelled over safety concerns, per The Straits Times.¹²

On Hatteras Island in North Carolina, a highway closure disrupted the wedding plans of a Virginia couple, Jayden Sink and Kimberly Laprad, stranding most of their roughly 45 guests on the other side of the closure, CBC reported. A nearby campground stepped in with an alternative venue, lodging cabins and someone to officiate, while a DJ volunteered to handle the music, and organisers welcomed anyone on the island to join the couple's Saturday afternoon celebration, according to CBC.¹

Officials urge caution

State officials along the East Coast urged residents to exercise caution, CBC reported. Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer used social media to urge people to monitor the forecast. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called coastal flooding the storm's greatest danger, noting forecasts for heavy rain, strong winds and waves reaching six metres. "The rain is underway and while it's only half an inch or so thus far, mark my words: Much more is coming," Hochul said, per CBC.¹

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, responding to forecasts that shifted the storm's path closer to the city, urged residents to "look out for your neighbours" and offered this advice: "If you're travelling this weekend, give yourself extra time. Check your train, ferry, or flight before you leave, and avoid low-lying coastal roads around high tide," according to The Straits Times. The United Nations asked media outlets to remove broadcasting equipment from outside its New York headquarters because of strong winds, The Straits Times reported. Boston and other parts of Massachusetts were expected to get as much as 13 centimetres of rain, while coastal sections of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey had already begun flooding, per The Straits Times.²

Bob Oravec, who serves as a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service office in College Park, Maryland, characterised the outlook as "a lot of high winds, a lot of high tides and heavy rain possibility over the next few days for the northeastern U.S.," according to CBC. The National Weather Service said the "strong nor'easter off the mid-Atlantic and north-east will bring coastal flooding, rip currents, strong wind gusts and heavy rain to the region this weekend," The Straits Times reported. CBC pointed out that while nor'easters are common as autumn sets in across New England, this particular storm hit unusually early in the season.¹²

The Straits Times pointed out that a previous nor'easter earlier in 2026 had grounded hundreds of flights and knocked out electricity to thousands of homes and businesses, and that the region had only recently recovered from a separate winter storm blamed for more than 100 deaths.²