Nor’easter flooding swept through New Jersey’s shore communities and parts of New York City on Saturday, forcing evacuation orders, downing trees and cutting power to tens of thousands of customers as a powerful coastal storm settled over the Northeast for a second consecutive day.
Governors in both states moved ahead of the storm’s arrival. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Friday covering Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and New York City, warning of “dangerous coastal flooding, strong winds and potential power outages through the weekend.” New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill placed eight counties, Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Cumberland, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Salem, under emergency status the same evening, telling residents to “take this storm seriously” and follow local guidance as conditions changed.
Nor’easter Flooding Hits New Jersey and New York Hardest
New Jersey has absorbed the heaviest impact so far. Local officials there compared the scale of flooding to Hurricane Sandy, the 2012 storm that killed dozens of people and caused billions of dollars in damage along the same coastline. Manasquan issued a voluntary evacuation order for residents in low-lying areas near the beach. “A lot of our newer residents have not experienced a storm like this before,” Mayor Mike Mangan said, adding that floodwaters could linger in the streets for several days.
He specifically urged elderly residents and people with disabilities to leave, even from homes built on higher ground, warning that rescue crews would have limited reach once water levels rose. A comparable evacuation advisory went out in Point Pleasant, while Atlantic City firefighters responded to a vehicle fire surrounded by floodwater in the city center.
New York City saw its own share of disruption. Falling trees and branches struck at least one parked car in Brooklyn, and standing water pooled deep enough in some neighborhoods that residents were photographed kayaking down residential streets. The National Weather Service flagged moderate to locally major flooding risk for several city counties over the weekend, prompting Mayor Zohran Mamdani to ask residents to prepare supplies and check on neighbors. Transit officials said subway and commuter rail service was running on a normal schedule, with storm doors installed at the Coney Island and Howard Beach rail yards to protect equipment from flooding.
Coastal flood warnings stretched from the Mid-Atlantic into southeastern New England through the weekend. Seas near Montauk, New York, ran roughly 2.6 feet above normal levels. Forecasters said the storm system would not begin to weaken until Sunday night, with additional rounds of major coastal flooding expected around consecutive high-tide cycles from northern New Jersey up through southern New England.
Nor’easter Flooding Adds to Power and Travel Disruptions
Utility tracking site PowerOutage.us counted more than 37,000 customers without electricity in New Jersey as of Saturday morning, including over 7,000 outages in Ocean County alone. Outage totals climbed further across the broader Northeast and Mid-Atlantic as the storm moved through overnight, though no single agency has published one combined regional figure, and counts are changing hourly as repair crews respond.
Air travel absorbed the sharpest disruption in New England. FlightAware recorded 426 cancellations and 1,708 delays nationwide by Saturday afternoon, with Boston Logan International Airport alone losing roughly a quarter of its scheduled flights, 131 departures and 122 arrivals canceled.
New York’s airports fared comparatively better: 15 departures and 15 arrivals were canceled at LaGuardia, 7 departures and 9 arrivals at JFK, and 5 departures and 5 arrivals at Newark Liberty. Philadelphia International reported 21 combined cancellations. Delta, American, United and JetBlue issued fee-free rebooking waivers for travelers passing through Northeast airports, generally allowing itinerary changes through September 30. Concerts by Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys and Lenny Kravitz in New York City and Massachusetts, each booked for tens of thousands of attendees, were also called off because of the weather.
What happens next
Officials expect nor’easter flooding to intensify again Saturday night into Sunday, raising the likelihood of further damage around Sunday morning’s high tide. The National Weather Service said residents in low-lying coastal areas from the Carolinas through southern New England should prepare for continued road closures, beach erosion and possible property damage into early next week. Neither state has said when evacuation advisories or the emergency declarations will be lifted, and both governors said updates would follow as conditions develop.