Break out the floaties!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Torrential summer storms battered the Big Apple on Thursday, trapping a LIRR train filled with passengers and submerging cars on a Queens highway in a travel nightmare that hampered the evening rush.<\/p>\n
Floodwater soaked the iconic\u00a0Grand Central Station\u2019s platform<\/a>, cascaded in dramatic waterfalls inside Brooklyn\u2019s Jay Street-MetroTech and burst from the walls in the Seventh Avenue station in Park Slope,\u00a0wild video<\/a>\u00a0showed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Cars and Truck Underwater at ClearView ExpressWay in Queens During state of emergency for severe storms. Oliya Scootercaster\/FreedomNewsTV<\/p>\n A LIRR train got stuck on the tracks for several hours near Bayside station in Queens, forcing firefighters to use ladders to help travel-weary commuters evacuate, according to separate footage.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was scared at first. About like 15 minutes after we stopped on the tracks, all the lights went off. That\u2019s when I got a little scared and went \u2018oh boy, something\u2019s going on\u2019,\u201d recalled Jessica Grant, a Stony Brook resident who was heading home after a trip to Lake George.<\/p>\n Grant was sitting in the second car and was able to trek to the front of the train and see the track covered by water, she said.<\/p>\n Workers can be seen pumping water out of the 7th Avenue subway station in Brooklyn on Thursday. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n A hose dumps the excess water into the street on Thursday. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n Another passenger added that the crew kept promising a \u201crescue engine\u201d that never came.<\/p>\n A third passenger, who said she experienced claustrophobia and had double-vision, started to panic once the cars started to heat up.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still scary. I don\u2019t have depth perception and I have double vision. It\u2019s scary, and it was getting hot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n To add insult to wet injury, a power outage at a Manhattan subway station caused delays on multiple trains as commuters desperately tried to flee home amid the storm.<\/p>\n The roadways above ground weren\u2019t spared either and as the skies opened up with a vengeance in the late afternoon, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams issued emergency declarations,\u00a0urging New Yorkers to stay home to avoid the flooded streets and inundated subway stations.<\/p>\n The Clearview Expressway in Queens was left underwater, trapping a semi-truck and several cars, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wild video showed two vehicles almost completely submerged, an SUV stranded under the overpass with its trunk open, and the 18-wheeler with water up to its cab doors.\u00a0<\/p>\n The footage also showed a pick-up truck hauling a small vehicle attempting to fjord the murky waters that appeared to be over three feet deep in certain spots.<\/p>\n Forecasts predicted at least five inches of rain in parts of the region. Oliya Scootercaster\/FreedomNewsTV<\/p>\n Commuters fled the intense downpour. William Farrington<\/p>\n Map of Northeast US showing severe storm threat levels. FOX Weather<\/p>\n People in the rain on the corner of Union Street and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n FDNY and the NYPD\u2019s Emergency Services Unit crews raced to the flooding near Northern Boulevard after reports of occupants trapped inside submerged vehicles, authorities said.<\/p>\n Those inside the stalled cars made it out safely, FDNY officials said \u2014 though it wasn\u2019t immediately clear if they were rescued or escaped under their own power.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if the trapped vehicles were occupied. Oliya Scootercaster\/FreedomNewsTV<\/p>\n People walking in Times Square during a rainstorm. William C Lopez\/New York Post<\/p>\n The Clearview was subsequently closed in both directions at Northern Boulevard, police said.<\/p>\n