Flood — Westchester, New York

2011-08-28 · near Croton on Hudson, Westchester, New York

Event narrative

A raft carrying five men capsized on the Croton River just south of Silver Lake Park shortly before 6 pm. The men were rescued from the raging river, which was moving at a speed of around 40 mph, but not before three of the rescue workers were tossed from their rescue boat and were swept under a trestle bridge just south of the Croton-Harmon station. The rescue workers were pulled from the water without injury. One man on the raft suffered from hypothermia after being forced to cling to a tree for 2 hours until he was rescued. Another was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Wider weather episode

Irene made landfall locally as a tropical storm around 900 am EDT August 28, 2011 over New York City. Irene then moved across Southeast New York and Western Connecticut before dissipating over Northern New England near the Canadian Border later that evening. Copious amounts of tropical moisture within the storm produced extended periods of heavy rainfall, which resulted in widespread moderate to major flooding across the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.2017, -73.8735)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 348562. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.