Powerful storm pummels Northeast US with rain, high winds
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Heavy rain and strong winds battered the northeastern United States on Sunday as an unusually powerful autumn storm intensified, leaving tens of thousands without power. U.S. media reported one person dead.
New York, Boston and Philadelphia were in the path of the nor’easter—so named for its northeasterly winds—as authorities warned of major flooding and road closures.
The storm continued to dump rain as it churned off the coast of the northern Mid-Atlantic and southern New England on Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service said in its latest forecast.
The storm was expected to move toward New Jersey and Long Island “through tonight, resulting in the full force of this nor’easter” affecting the region by Sunday morning, forecasters said.
“Major coastal flooding is expected along the Mid-Atlantic Coast over multiple high tide cycles coming off a full moon through the weekend,” the weather service said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the storm was bearing down Saturday on coastal areas of New York City and Long Island.
“Conditions are extremely dangerous. Anyone who goes in or near the water this weekend is literally gambling with their life,” Hochul said at a news briefing.
In Brooklyn, a 56-year-old man was killed when winds toppled a tree that struck him, U.S. media reported.
Nearly 80,000 customers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were without power as of 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) Sunday, according to the monitoring tool poweroutage.com.
Up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain are expected on Long Island over the next few days.
“We expect waves as tall as 20 feet (6 meters) in some areas,” Hochul said.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned residents of the country’s most populous city about strong wind gusts and the possibility of downed power lines, saying, “Don’t travel if you don’t have to.”
The storm forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights on Sunday, including 171 to and from Boston’s Logan airport. Delays continued across the region, according to tracker FlightAware.
Major airlines including JetBlue, United and American issued travel alerts allowing passengers to change their flights without fees.
The United Nations, where world leaders are gathered for the organization’s General Assembly, urged media outlets covering the event to clear broadcasting equipment from outside its New York headquarters because of strong winds.
‘Safety has to come first’
Major cultural events were also called off, including the Global Citizen and All Things Go festivals in New York and Oceans Calling in Maryland.
“Safety has to come first. This is the first time in 14 years we’ve had to cancel,” said organizers of the Global Citizen event in Central Park, which was meant to feature Lenny Kravitz, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and country stars Lainey Wilson and Shaboozey.
About 5 inches (13 centimeters) of rain was forecast in areas of Massachusetts including Boston—the equivalent of more than a month’s worth of rainfall.
After much uproar surrounding his tour, British pop singer Ed Sheeran’s weekend concerts near Boston were canceled because of the storm, which had whipped up wind gusts of 70 miles (113 kilometers) per hour along the New England coast.
Some coastal areas of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey have already seen flooding this week.
Nor’easters can occur throughout the year but are more frequent between fall and early spring. They are almost always accompanied by heavy rain or snowfall, as well as strong wind gusts.
Earlier this year, a nor’easter that pummeled the Northeast disrupted hundreds of flights and left thousands of homes and businesses without power.
That storm came weeks after the region recovered from a devastating winter weather system that was linked to more than 100 deaths.
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Powerful storm pummels Northeast US with rain, high winds (2026, September 27)
retrieved 27 September 2026
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