Record-shattering rains blindsided Long Island residents with an entire summer’s worth of precipitation in just eight hours — leading to catastrophic flooding that stranded hundreds of motorists and left at least one person dead, authorities said.
Officials declared a state of emergency in parts of Suffolk County after the deluge dumped a record-setting 13.67 inches of rain in the Town of Islip between midnight and 8 a.m.
“These are historic amounts of rain,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said.
“We have never seen anything like this before — cars floating down the Southern State Parkway,” he added.
New York state’s previous record for precipitation in a 24-hour period was set in August 2011 when Hurricane Irene soaked the upstate town of Tannersville with 11.6 inches, AccuWeather meteorologist Carl Erickson said.
By Wednesday morning, the freak rainstorm had turned highways into rivers, and forced drivers to ditch their vehicles.
Tricia Olszewski was driving her niece and nephew to the airport when she tried to drive through a flooded street, only to stall out when the car got submerged on Union Boulevard in Lindenhurst.
“I’m so done. I’m frustrated and exhausted,” she said after paramedics pulled her and her family out of the car and onto dry land.
“We thought we could make it through [the water] because we watched a smaller car make it, but then a truck came in the opposite direction and caused a huge wave that went over our car and we stalled.”
“The water was high and fast. It was like waves in the ocean.”
Suffolk County Police confirmed that one motorist was killed when his SUV was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on the Long Island Expressway amid the height of the storm.
Hoffman Avenue in Lindenhurst was flooded out near the LIRR Station, leaving trucks stranded in the water for hours.