Weather updates: Heavy rain, thunderstorms and possible flooding across LI

Update: The Charger is pulled from the water

Naquasha Bias, 35, of Farmingdale, said her brother, the owner of the car, had been asleep in his Dodge Charger at the Park & Ride in Medford and awoke to the sound of rain.

Her brother, who did not wish to be named, was startled to realize that the location of where he had parked, the far-right corner of the parking lot, had flooded, while inside his partially submerged his car. Bias said he soon called her explaining the situation, and was audibly upset.

The two called Suffolk County police and filed a report, she said.

Bias drove from Farmingdale to Medford to help her brother, noting the front part of the car submerged. When her 6-foot-tall brother walked through the water, it came up to his knees, Bias showed a Newsday reporter in a video she captured.

Bias said she was grateful for the police officer who attended the scene and called a tow company for them. The water was so high, the driver of the tow truck didn’t even get out of his vehicle.

"He said, 'You’ve got to wait for this water to go down,’" Bias said, who then drove to Mastic where her other brother lives to get pulleys to pull the car.

Shortly after 8 a.m. after the water slightly went down, Bias’ two brothers and a friend put the car in neutral and pushed the car out of the floodwater. A line of dried leaves around the car and the center of the license plate left a trail of how high the water had risen.

Bias said she was frustrated at the lack of maintaining and cleaning drainage systems.

"Who knows when's the last time the drains over here has been cleaned out," she said, pointing to another parking lot drain filled with debris and garbage.
She also said there were no visible signs in the parking lot that the area was a flood zone.

As she spoke, her brother scooped out water from the car with a Dunkin' cup.

Recovery operation for Dodge Charger

Shortly after 8 a.m., the black Dodge Charger previously reported by police to be partially submerged was still in the corner of the LIRR Park and Ride on North Ocean Avenue in Medford.

Three men were at the scene, trying to push or drag the car out of the area. The car's headlights came on during the recovery operation.

That portion of the parking lot was the only flooded area remaining from the storm.

 

Flash flooding, rip currents possible

While the storm has passed through much of New York City and western Long Island, while isolated to scattered instances of flash flooding remain possible for portions of the region Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

Smaller streams and rivers could briefly exceed their banks; a flood watch is in effect for Long Island until 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Additional rainfall of 1 to 2 inches, with locally higher amounts, is expected.

More showers could lead to localized nuisance flooding in urbanized and poor drainage areas, but the overall flood threat has lessened for New York City and much of the region.

Forecasters also warn of dangerous rip currents at ocean beaches Wednesday.

Rush hour commute normal after storms

Midway through the morning rush hour, Long Island was recovering from the overnight storm.

Other than the usual spots known for slowdowns, Long Island's main thoroughfares were moving well, according to 511NY.com, the state road website.

The Long Island Rail Road was reporting scattered delays on the Port Jefferson, Oyster Bay and Montauk branches. None were due to weather-related issues.

The PSEG outage map showed a mere 22 outages impacting 600 customers at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday.

Blue skies were visible across most of Nassau; In central Suffolk, heavy rain had given way to clouds with the sun rising behind them.

Heavy rains moving east toward Twin Forks

A flood advisory is in effect for Central Suffolk as of 6 a.m., as the National Weather Service said the heaviest bands of showers with rainfall rates of up to an inch per hour are moving through the area and shifting toward the Twin Forks.

Commuters traveling through Central Suffolk should be aware of flooded pockets while driving, service meteorologist James Tomasini said.

"We haven't seen any sort of like flash flooding reports so far on Long Island," he said. "There's been some reports of maybe one or two lanes of a road being closed due to some water pooling up on the sides there, and that's sort of the impact we've seen so far."

All of Long Island remains under a flood watch advisory until 2 p.m., including the East End.

Airport conditions improving

The situation at New York's airports Wednesday was improving after Tuesday's delays and cancellations

LaGuardia Airport reported 23 delays and 69 cancellations at about 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, according to website Flight Aware.

Kennedy Airport reported 59 delays and 51 cancellations.

Tuesday morning, Kennedy reported 254 cancellations and 50 delays, according to Flight Aware. LaGuardia reported 17 delays and 213 cancellations. Those figures had eased up in the early afternoon, with Kennedy reporting 18 delays and 46 cancellations and LaGuardia noting 28 delays and 64 cancellations shortly after 1:30 p.m.

Long Islanders awake to downed trees, submerged auto

The overnight rains have left behind an array of issues across Long Island.

Among them:

Suffolk police said a submerged Dodge Charger was reported at the Park and Ride on North Ocean Avenue in Medford. The call came in at 5:08 a.m.

The police also said they received a 5:19 a.m., report of a tree down across the roadway on Pat Drive between McElroy Street and Butler Street in West Islip.  Around 3 a.m., 511NY reported that NY27 was flooded east of Morris Avenue near Rockville Centre; the left lane was closed.

More incidents like this are expected as residents awake to the storm's fallout.

Keep an eye on the storms with NWS radar

See where the heaviest bands of rain are by checking the National Weather Service radar for Long Island by clicking here.

Forecast: Heavy rain, thunderstorms could bring 'serious' flooding

Multiple rounds of heavy showers and thunderstorms in the forecast threaten to produce potentially serious flooding in some areas. Read more here.