US President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in New York State and announced the establishment of federal aid to help the region cope with the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, said, Thursday, September 2, the White House in a statement.

Flash floods caused by the storm's passage through the northeastern United States killed at least 44 people.

A heavy toll

In the American economic and cultural megalopolis, the police counted at least 13 dead, including several people probably trapped and drowned in their basements, rudimentary housing, and sometimes unsanitary, arranged at the foot of the buildings of Manhattan, Queens or Brooklyn. 

Just north of Manhattan in upscale seaside Westchester County, which was still surrounded by muddy, brackish water Thursday night, one of its officials, George Latimer, told CNN that three people who had attempted to get out of their car were also likely to drown.

A police officer assigned to guard traffic has died in neighboring Connecticut.

But the worst toll is for New Jersey, a state facing New York, with "at least 23 people who have lost their lives," said Governor Phil Murphy.

Most of the victims were taken by surprise and trapped in their cars and probably drowned, the official said.

Finally, near Philadelphia, four people died, according to local authorities.

The streets still flooded

In New York, the gigantic subway network partially restarted Thursday, after many stations flooded.

The NWS, the US weather service, recorded an all-time high of 80mm of rain in one hour in Central Park.

Streets, avenues, expressways were suddenly turned into torrents, both in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens.

In Westchester, dozens of vehicles were still submerged to the roofs on Thursday and basements of pretty traditional East Coast houses were devastated by water sometimes rising to two feet.

"I have the impression of having lost everything," Marcio Rodrigues, a mechanic in the town of Mamaroneck, told AFP in tears, in his flooded car workshop. 

Dramatic tornadoes and floods also struck in Pennsylvania, New Jersey - also under a state of emergency - and in Maryland. 

Emergency state

In the middle of the night, the new governor of the State of New York, Kathy Hochul, had declared a "state of emergency" following the "major" floods in all the border counties of the city, potentially affecting some 20 million. inhabitants.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose city is just recovering from the pandemic, lamented a "historic meteorological event".

The "state of emergency" for these floods is unprecedented for New York City, according to the US weather service.

The US president also declared a state of emergency on Thursday evening, this time across New York State and announced the establishment of federal aid to help the region cope with the damage caused. by Hurricane Ida.

Joe Biden will travel to Louisiana on Friday, the first state to have suffered the ravages of Ida on Sunday, which destroyed many buildings and still deprives hundreds of thousands of homes of electricity.

"We are all together. The nation is ready to help," said the tenant of the White House simply.

Downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, Ida was heading Thursday night over New England. 

With AFP and Reuters

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