59.0°,
Mostly Cloudy LBFD rescues pedestrian from sinkhole
City urges residents to stay indoors amid flash flood warning
Widespread street flooding and numerous rescues by the Long Beach Fire Department on Friday served as a stark reminder of the city's vulnerability to coastal storms as Tropical Storm Andrea made its way up the East Coast.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Long Beach and other South Shore communities through Friday night, with 1 to 2 inches of rain falling per hour, and as much as 3 inches per hour in some isolated areas.
The agency said that reports of flash flooding have been received across southern and central Nassau and Suffolk counties and, as of 7 p.m., between 2 and 4 inches of rain had already fallen across the area. Moderate to heavy rain was expected this evening and overnight.
Parts of Park Avenue, Broadway and many other streets were flooded, with some roads closed due to severe flooding. The Department of Public Works cleared a blockage on National Boulevard and was working further east, the city said Friday on its Facebook page. Just before 8 p.m., the city said that Riverside Boulevard was cleared.
"We continue to ask that you please remain indoors until the rain subsides as driving conditions are not very safe and there may be some road closures due to flash flooding," the city said in a statement on its website. "There is no cause for panic as there will not be any storm surges or significant coastal flooding."
The city said that it had been closely monitoring the storm for several days as it moved up the coast.
"We are fortunate that it traveled over a great deal of land before it finally got here," the statement read. "The strong gusting winds have remained off shore thus far, as forecasters anticipated, and it does not appear that we will have any significant coastal flooding. Storm systems can only handle so much water, but if the drains get clogged, sewer maintenance crews are on hand this evening."
Fire Chief Antonio Cuevas said that firefighters responded to roughly 20 emergency calls on Friday, ranging from drivers who were trapped in their vehicles on flooded streets to a number of car accidents.
