NEW YORK — Hefty thunderstorms caused a deluge of rain, flooding subway stations and roadways in New York City hrs before Tropical Storm Elsa arrived Friday.

The thunderstorms Thursday evening caused flash flooding in Manhattan and the Bronx that submerged at minimum a single subway stop with waist-higher h2o and soaked many other individuals as website traffic on hectic roadways came to halt.

The rains prompted flash flood and critical thunderstorm warnings from the Countrywide Climate Services. Some pockets of the city saw nearly 3 to 3.5 inches of rain Thursday, in accordance to weather company facts. 

Elsa had not yet achieved New York when the flooding started off but the tropical storm is anticipated to deliver even much more rainfall to the town, which had noticed a further significant thunderstorm Wednesday night. 

Far more than a dozen people were being rescued from automobiles that got trapped on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx, police said, and elements of Harlem River Travel also briefly shut owing to the floods.

Photographs and videos shared on social media showed cars in several inches of h2o, still continue to driving by way of the drenched roads.

At the No. 1 station on West 157th Avenue in higher Manhattan, subway riders trekked into midsection-substantial waters in tries to catch their trains.

Films showed one girl stepping into the murky waters of a flooded station even though yet another gentleman tried using to wander through with a rubbish bag all over his