Live Updates: Ida Floods New York City Area

The New York City area was under a state of emergency early Thursday after the remnants of Hurricane Ida barreled into the region with furious, wind-driven rain that all but halted subway service, splintered homes in New Jersey and resulted in a tornado warning for the Bronx.

The rain on Wednesday night — 3.1 inches in Central Park in an hour — shattered a record set only last week, when 1.94 inches of rain fell in the park during Tropical Storm Henri. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency in New York City for the first time.

At least two deaths were reported from the flooding, one in Queens and one in Passaic, N.J.

Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency just before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, saying New York City was “enduring a historic weather event” with “record breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads.” He warned New Yorkers: “Stay inside.”

Just before 1 a.m., the city issued a travel ban in effect until 5 a.m. Thursday.

“All non-emergency vehicles must be off NYC streets and highways,” the emergency management office said on Twitter.

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey also declared a state of emergency late Wednesday night and asked residents to “stay off the roads, stay home, and stay safe.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority advised customers in an email alert late Wednesday: “Train service is extremely limited, if not even suspended, because of heavy rainfall and flooding across the region.” The transit system’s website showed service was suspended across more than 18 subway lines.

All New Jersey rail service, with the exception of the Atlantic City line, was suspended, New Jersey Transit said.

At Newark Liberty International Airport, 3.24 inches of rain were recorded between 8 and 9 p.m., the Weather Service said. Newark Airport was experiencing “severe flooding,” the airport said in a statement on Twitter, confirming videos posted on social media that showed deep water pooling inside.

“All flight activity is currently suspended & travelers are strongly advised to contact their airline for the latest flight & service resumption information,” the statement said. “Passengers are being diverted from ground-level flooded areas.”

Some flights resumed about 90 minutes later, the airport said.

In Passaic, at least one person was believed to have died after being trapped in a car in the rising floodwaters, Mayor Hector C. Lora said in an interview. The authorities were preparing to evacuate residents in part of the city, after the Passaic River breached its banks and caused significant flooding downtown.

Around 9 p.m., the Weather Service issued a tornado warning for parts of the Bronx, after radar indicated a tornado had formed in the area.

The flash flood emergency issued by the Weather Service was more severe than a flash flood watch or even a flash flood warning. The agency defines such emergencies as “exceedingly rare situations when extremely heavy rain is leading to a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage,” typically with “life-threatening water rises resulting in water rescues/evacuations.”

At times, strong wind gusts blew the rain sideways, enough to delay a U.S. Open match at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens on Wednesday night, as rain made its way into the stadium in spite of its roof.

The storm system, advancing on a path to southern New England, brought drenching rain that could lead to life-threatening flooding, meteorologists said.

As the stormy weather moved northeast on Wednesday, it prompted a string of tornado warnings across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, including a warning for Philadelphia after the Weather Service said a “large and extremely dangerous” tornado had been observed south of the city, near Mullica Hill, N.J.

“You are in a life-threatening situation,” the service said in a statement. “Flying debris may be deadly to those caught without shelter.”

Images and video circulating on social media on Wednesday showed homes that had been damaged as well as felled trees in the Harrison Township area in Gloucester County. The Harrison Township Police Department was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday night.

Wenonah, another small borough in Gloucester County, in southern New Jersey, was heavily flooded and “suffered extensive damage following this evening’s tornado event,” the mayor, John R. Dominy, wrote on Facebook. He urged residents to call 911 for emergencies and to stay home or in a safe place.

“Do not venture out. Many trees are unstable. Third, please do not approach downed wires as many may be live,” he wrote.

He said the authorities were assessing the damage and added, “We do not have an estimate of when power will be restored.”

As of early Thursday, more than 100,000 customers in Pennsylvania, 70,000 in New Jersey and 50,000 in New York were without power, according to reports compiled by PowerOutage.us.

Residents in Lambertville, N.J., about 40 miles north of Philadelphia, posted photos that showed streets inundated with brown water, cars submerged up to their tires and flooded basements.

The storm, which hit Louisiana on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The morning commute on Thursday could be affected by drainage flooding in much of New England and the Mid-Atlantic, particularly in metropolitan areas, meteorologists said.

In light of the flash flood watch, New York City Emergency Management issued a travel advisory for Wednesday into Thursday morning. At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. de Blasio urged New York City residents to watch out for deceptively deep bodies of water that could appear to be shallow.

“We’ll get through this one, too,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Let’s get this storm by us.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York ordered state agencies to prepare emergency response plans and told residents to exercise caution. Ms. Hochul also warned of the possibility of a tornado in the downstate area. More than 5,000 utility workers across the state have been prepared for damage and restoration responses, she said.

Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard, Isabella Grullón Paz, Matthew Haag, Eduardo Medina, Derrick Bryson Taylor and Ashley Wong.

City buses turned into amphibious vehicles, plowing through several feet of water, past orange traffic cones floating like buoys in the muck.

Subway stations roared with the sounds of rushing water that cascaded through platforms and down the stairs as if from a churning waterfall, flooding the tracks below.

In parts of Brooklyn, cars moved through lakes of mud-brown water, their headlights shining on waves that formed in front of their wheels and lapped at the feet of brownstones.

The sudden inundation from the remnants of Ida transformed familiar scenes of life in New York into otherworldly and waterlogged chaos on Wednesday night. The rain continued into early Thursday morning.

It was frightening and foreboding — a vision, many said, of the future as climate change produces more extreme and heavy rainfall during storms.

Nearly every subway line in the city was shut down, and Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency, citing the “record-breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads.”

“If you’re thinking of going outside, don’t,” he said on Twitter. “Stay off the subways. Stay off the roads. Don’t drive into these heavy waters.”

The National Weather Service placed New York City under a flash flood emergency for the first time after the city was socked with torrential rainfall.

Over a single hour — between 8:51 and 9:51 p.m. — Central Park recorded 3.15 inches of rain, smashing a record set only last week, when 1.94 inches of rain fell in the park during Tropical Storm Henri.

Not everyone was heeding the official warnings to stay inside.

Social media filled with images of delivery workers driving or pushing bicycles through the floodwaters. One video posted on Twitter showed a man floating on an inflatable raft in a flooded alleyway, casually puffing on a hookah. Other videos showed cars trapped on flooded boulevards.

“We are seeing way too many reports of water rescues and stranded motorists,” the New York office of the National Weather Service said on Twitter. “Do not drive through flooded roadways. You do not know how deep the water is and it is too dangerous.”

All across the city, wild scenes were unfolding.

City officials warned that 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts were expected. And the wind-driven rain poured through the roof of Louis Armstrong Stadium, pelting fans who opened umbrellas and delaying a match at the U.S. Open in Queens.

The Film Forum, an art-house cinema in Manhattan, flooded during a showing of the French film “La Piscine”, leading audience members to joke that it was an immersive experience.

On Broadway, theatergoers watching “Pass Over” eyed one another warily as some half-dozen screeching emergency alerts rippled through audience members’ phones — though the actors stayed in character.

The stunning storm was deadly serious, with unpredictable risks unfolding as the sluicing rain and gusting wind continued in the dark, taking some motorists and walkers by surprise. Residents in some neighborhoods posted videos of water rushing in through closed doors, filling hallways.

“We are BEYOND not ready for climate change,” Mark Levine, a City Council representative, declared on Twitter.

Jesus Jiménez and Maggie Astor contributed reporting.

About 200 people were rescued from a train near Newark Airport on Wednesday night as heavy rains and flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida shut down major train routes and other transit passageways throughout the New York region.

The passengers had been stuck in a train near the airport for about three and a half hours before they were rescued at about 9 p.m., Jim Smith, spokesman for New Jersey Transit, said. No injuries were reported, he said.

The storm flooded the region and poured water throughout New York City’s underground transit system, halting what is normally 24-hour service. Janno Lieber, acting chair and C.E.O. of the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said in a statement that “massive amounts of water” from an “epic storm” had created “severe disruptions.”

New Yorkers should not travel until further notice, he said.

Both Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Railroad suspended service because of the storm.

New York City Transit officials offered stark advise to any riders attempting to travel Wednesday night. “If you’re on a train that’s stuck, stay on that train,” the transit system said on Twitter, calling it “the safest place to be” unless transit officials on scene advise otherwise.

Extreme storms have battered New York’s 24-hour train service in recent years. Service was stalled for several days following damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. And in 2015, officials shut down subway service in anticipation of a severe snowstorm, which turned out to be milder than expected.

At the 96th Street train station in Manhattan, Mario Villa, a cook at Tartina, had been waiting since just after 10 p.m. to get to his home in Queens. At midnight, sitting on a stalled No. 1 train beside a co-worker, he said, “We’ll wait. We don’t get upset. We just have to wait.”

Andy Newman, Anne Barnard, Stacy Cowley and Christiaan Triebert contributed reporting.