Flash Flood — Putnam, New York

1999-09-16 to 1999-09-17 · near Countywide, Putnam, New York

Wider weather episode

Torrential record rainfall, which caused serious widespread urban, small stream, and river flooding, preceded the remnants of Hurricane Floyd, which passed over Western Suffolk County of Long Island from 7 pm to 9 pm on September 16th.Death: In Rockland County, a 53-year old man died around midnight on the 17th when he was swept into the Pearl River while walking in Orangetown.Property Damage: Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester Counties were declared disaster areas. For these 4 counties, the initial cost estimates were $14.6 million dollars. These figures represents "eligible" costs for disaster payments, and were provided by the New York State Emergency Management Office. They represent a "fraction" of the costs that were actually incurred.Urban Flooding: Serious widespread flooding of low-lying and poor drainage areas resulted in the closure of many roads and basement flooding across the entire region.Stream and River Flooding:In Rockland County, the Mahwah River at Suffern was above its' flood stage of 4 ft. from 1:30 pm on the 16th until 3 am on the 18th. The crest stage was about 9.7 feet.In Westchester and Bronx Counties, the Saw Mill and Bronx Rivers overflowed their banks and caused serious widespread urban flooding.Rainfall Amounts: The axis of heaviest rain was oriented from southwest to northeast and extended from Central NJ northeast across the Lower Hudson Valley of Southeast NY and Southwest CT. Maximum rainfall rates from 1 to around 2 inches per hour lasted for at least 3 consecutive hours across parts of the Lower Hudson Valley from 2 pm until 6 pm on the 16th.Here are selected rainfall amounts for:Putnam County: from 11.73 inches at the George Fischer M.S. Weather Station in Carmel to 13.70 inches at Brewster. Rockland County: from 7.85 inches at Pomona to 10.17 inches at Congers.Westchester County: from 5.03 inches at Tuckahoe to 12.55 inches at Granite Springs. At Westchester County Airport, 6.26 inches was measured.Orange County: from 4.46 inches at Middletown to 8.25 inches at West Point.Bronx County: 7.51 inches was measured by the Fordham Prep School Weather Station.New York (Manhattan) County: from 4.06 inches at the Saint Rose of Lima Weather Station to 5.02 inches at Central Park.Richmond (Staten Island:) County: No reports were available.Kings (Brooklyn) County: from 3.83 inches at Graves End to 5.53 inches at the Bishop Kearney H.S. Weather Station.Queens County: from 3.27 inches at JFK Airport to 4.94 inches at LaGuardia Airport.Nassau County: from 3.67 inches at Wantagh to 4.12 inches at Mineola.Suffolk County: from 2.67 inches at Bridgehampton to 4.88 inches at Sea Cliff.Winds: Strong and gusty winds combined with torrential rain downed many trees, tree limbs, and power lines across the area. Significant power outages resulted. Most wind gusts were from 50 to 60 mph from around 1:30 pm on the 16th to around 2 am on the 17th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5724744. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.