Woman swept away in New York flash flood while trying to save her dog
A woman trying to save her dog was killed after being swept away in flash floods in the US.
The woman, thought to be in her mid-thirties, drowned as she was attempting to evacuate her house in Hudson Valley, New York.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms caused chaos in the area yesterday.
The force of the flash flooding dislodged boulders which rammed the woman’s house and damaged part of its wall, said Orange County executive Steven Neuhaus.
‘Her house was completely surrounded by water,’ he added. ‘She was trying to get through [the flooding] with her dog, and she was overwhelmed by tidal-wave type waves.’
Rescue teams were attempting to retrieve her body. Two other family members and the dog survived the ordeal, officials said, according to PIX 11.
Up to eight inches (20cm) of rain fell in some areas, swamping roadways and causing extensive damage to buildings, which, according to officials, could cost tens of millions of dollars to fix.
Videos posted on social media show streams of brown-coloured torrents of water rushing right next to homes.
Much of the rest of north-east US began bracing for similar weather as the slow-moving storm headed east.
Speaking last night, New York governor Kathy Hochul told WCBS radio that several people were missing and one home had been washed away.
‘The amount of water is extraordinary and it’s still a very dangerous situation,’ Ms Hochul said.
‘We’ll get through this,’ she said, adding ‘it’s going to be a rough night’.
The governor declared a state of emergency in Orange County, about 60 miles (96 km) north of New York City.
She later extended the state of emergency to Ontario County in western New York, south-east of Rochester.
The US National Weather Service, meanwhile, issued flash flood warnings across parts of southeastern New York, describing it as ‘life threatening,’ as well as warnings in northeastern New Jersey.
By Monday ‘a considerable flood threat with a high risk of excessive rainfall is expected across much of New England’, the service said in a tweet.
Stormy weather was also expected in New York City and may lead to flash flooding, the National Weather Service New York tweeted.
The city’s emergency notification system tweeted that the heavy rain could cause ‘life-threatening flooding to basements’ and urged residents to ‘prepare now to move to higher ground if needed’.
Last month much of north east America and eastern Canada was shrouded in a smokey orange haze due to wild fires in Canada’s Northern Quebec region, where many people were forced to evacuate their homes.
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