A 13-year-old boy has died after being trapped in a storm drain during heavy rainfall and flooding on the US East Coast, officials have confirmed.
The tragedy unfolded on Thursday in Mount Airy, a town of about 10,000 people, 30 miles (48 kilometres) west of Baltimore. Children were playing in a common area when floodwaters swept the boy into the pipe, according to Doug Alexander, spokesman for the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company.
People attempted to rescue him, but the water pressure was too strong, pushing him further in, Mr Alexander said. He was freed after the rain slowed, but it was too late.
The National Weather Service has warned that more storms could bring flash and urban flooding to the northern mid-Atlantic and southern New England through Friday night.
Parts of the Baltimore area received 2.5 to 4 inches (6 to 10 centimeters) Thursday, according to the weather service, but isolated areas received more, including 5 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) in Mount Airy and 6 inches (15 centimeters) in Joppatowne northeast of Baltimore, where people were rescued from flooded cars.
A few areas in New York and New Jersey saw 3 inches (nearly 8 centimeters) or more of rain and one part of central Long Island reported more than 4 inches (10 centimeters), according to the weather service.
By Friday morning, subways and commuter rail routes in the New York area were running on normal schedules after some sections were inundated by floodwaters. The city’s Department of Transportation also reported that roads and highways that had been shut down due to high water Thursday were reopened.
A few dozen flights were delayed or canceled at major airports in the New York, Boston and Washington regions Friday morning, but most were running on time, according to the FlightAware tracking service.
Power remained out to thousands of homes and businesses along the Eastern Seaboard on Friday morning, including nearly 5,000 in New York, 3,800 in Virginia, 2,500 in Maryland and 2,500 in Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us.
Amtrak trains between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, were stopped Thursday evening because of high water over the tracks, but Amtrak announced a few hours later that service had been restored and water was receding from the tracks.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other local officials pleaded with people Thursday to stay off the roads and urged residents in basement apartments to move to higher locations as rain was expected to fall through Friday afternoon.
