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State of Emergency Declared In New Jersey, More Commuter Woes For Friday Night

Friday, October 14, 2005

(New York- WABC, October 14, 2005) -- Eight days of relentless rain and water-weary residents in our area are looking for some sign of relief, but it didn't come today.

A heavy band of rain moved onto the south shore of Long Island Friday evening, dropping about an inch per hour on the already flooded streets. The resulting flash flood warning for our area meant that there was flooding at rivers, creeks and streams, underpasses and highways.

Right now there are mandatory evacuations in two New Jersey Communities.

In Loch Arbour, New Jersey water overflowed the banks of Deal Lake, spilling into nearby neighborhoods.

In Spring Lake water from Wreck Pond is flooding a neighborhood nearby.

The Long Island Rail Road says that limited service has resumed on the Long Beach Branch. But only one track is open, because of high water on the tracks.

There will be limited east-bound service and no west-bound service. For west-bound commuters, buses are being used for all stops between Long Beach and Lynbrook.

Commuters who are taking the Long Beach branch are being warned to expect 30 minute delays.

There are also scattered 15 minute delays on the Far Rockaway branch because of weather-related switch trouble. The 5-10 train out of Babylon has also been cancelled due to equipment trouble.

In Springfield Gardens, Queens drivers are plowing through high water and many are getting stranded. Police are blocking off roads and traffic is a mess.

Sam Champion is in weather center with your Accu-Weather Forecast.

We can't take a deep breath yet, but we can starting tomorrow morning, when some drier air will be coming into the area. There was heavier rain out toward Long Island Friday evening, sweeping into Connecticut and some of it was backing into the Hudson Valley, including Rockland, Westchester, Dutchess and Putnam counties.

The rain continues to fall more in east than western areas, and that's good news because over the next day or so, we'll finally give all this rain a giant push out of the area.

Read The Full Accu-Weather Forecast

There were also big problems with flooding in Wayne, New Jersey Friday night. The Pompton River was spilling over its banks into streets and basements. Appliances and other belongings are ruined. Some foundations also began to crack.

Residents in this neighborhood say they are used to some occasional flooding, but they don't remember seeing anything like this before.

Authorities in Monmouth County were keeping a tense watch on the Manasquan River Friday night. All the rain caused a dam breach in Allaire State Park, which caused some street flooding in that area.

There are more densely populated areas further downstream along the Manasquan, so emergency officials were keeping a close eye on the situation.

In Westchester County there was trouble along the Sawmill Parkway, where flooding forced the closures of several sections.

Roads closed or affected by the heavy rain and flooding include:

Southbound lanes on the Sawmill Parkway are closed at Manville Road in Pleasantville.

Northbound lanes on the Sawmill Parkway are closed at Marble Avenue in Thornwood.

Route 17 in New Jersey is closed northbound at Route 46 due to flooding.

The Tokamac Ramp leading northbound is also closed.

There are also delays at the airports in our area:

LaGuardia - 4 hour delays.

Newark Liberty - 4 Hour Delays.

JFK - 1 hour delays.

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