At least nine people have died after flash flooding and tornadoes hit the north-eastern United States, according to local media reports. Some victims were trapped in flooded basements, while one body was found in a vehicle that had been swept away.
The governors of New York and New Jersey declared a state of emergency, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called it a 'historic weather event'. Almost all New York City subway lines have been closed, and non-emergency vehicles have been banned from roads. Many flights and trains out of New York and New Jersey have been suspended.
The mayor of Passaic in New Jersey, Hector Lora, told CNN that the body of a man in his 70s had been recovered from a vehicle swept away in the floods. NBC New York reported that at least one more person died in New Jersey, while NBC and AFP reported seven deaths in New York City, some after people became trapped in basements.
The US National Weather Service declared a flood emergency in New York City, Brooklyn, Queens and parts of Long Island, and issued tornado warnings for parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. A flood emergency is issued in 'exceedingly rare situations when a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage from a flash flood is happening or will happen soon'.
The extreme weather has been caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida, which earlier caused widespread devastation in southern Louisiana. Hundreds of thousands of homes in Louisiana remain without power, and New Orleans is under a night-time curfew. Two people died when a motorway in Mississippi collapsed, while two others died in Louisiana, and two electrical workers were killed in Alabama.
