NEW YORK (AP) – A flood watch was issued for New York City and its suburbs Wednesday as a driving rain snarled traffic, flooded local streets and highways and caused havoc on some subway lines and at LaGuardia Airport.

The storm dropped 3.74 inches of rain in midtown Manhattan between midnight and Wednesday evening, according to the National Weather Service.

The area was expected to get a total of three to six inches of rain before it tapered off Thursday evening, the weather service said.

The torrential rain turned midtown Manhattan into a virtual traffic jam during the evening rush hour, with cars jammed up for blocks on end near the Lincoln Tunnel.

NYC Transit had to reroute subway lines on both Manhattan’s east and west sides due to water on the tracks, said spokesman Charles Seaton.

At LaGuardia Airport, inbound and outbound morning flights experienced 90-minute delays and 35 flights were canceled due to the downpour, said Alan Hicks, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Flights out of John F. Kennedy International Airport experienced minimal delays, Hicks said.

The wet weather also caused small power outages in the town of Eastchester in Westchester County and in the Baychester section of the Bronx, where a total of 1,700 Con Edison customers lost power for about one hour.

The Long Island Power Authority reported that 1,726 customers were without power in Nassau and Suffolk counties, with most of the outages in Smithtown and Huntington.


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