Nocturnal 
A monster nor’easter has torn through the US east coast with winds reportedly reaching up to 80mph and waves as high as 20ft, leaving at least one person dead and another missing.
The storm has battered cities from New York and Boston to Philadelphia since Friday, dumping torrential rain, flooding streets and knocking out power to well over 100,000 homes across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, according to FOX Weather and the Associated Press. States of emergency have been declared in New York and New Jersey.
Man killed by falling tree
New York’s first confirmed victim of the storm was named as Leighton Brown, a 56-year-old New York City Housing Authority worker who was struck by a falling tree at Cypress Hill Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, on Saturday afternoon. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed the death on X, saying: “My thoughts are with his entire family as they deal with this unimaginable loss. May he rest in peace, and may his service to our city never be forgotten.” NYCHA also issued a statement offering condolences to Brown’s family and colleagues.
Elsewhere in the city, four people including two children, aged one and seven, were taken to hospital with minor injuries after a tree fell on a playground in the Bronx, The Sun reported. More than 1,000 downed trees have been reported across New York’s five boroughs.
Search launched for missing swimmer
A search is under way off Robert Moses State Park on Long Island after a swimmer vanished in 18ft waves on Saturday afternoon. New York State Police said the man, described only as white, was seen in the water near Field #3 before disappearing from view, and are appealing for information from anyone who knows his whereabouts.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul had urged people to stay away from the water as the storm intensified, warning: “Anyone who goes in or near the water this weekend is literally gambling with their life.”
Flooding and travel chaos up and down the coast
Parts of Long Island have been warned to brace for up to three feet of floodwater, while some Massachusetts communities have seen more than seven inches of rain since Friday. Coastal erosion has hit shorelines from the Outer Banks in North Carolina to New England, with North Carolina’s Highway 12 washed out and residents cut off from the mainland.
The chaos has grounded hundreds of flights nationwide, with more than 500 cancellations and close to 6,000 delays reported by FlightAware, hitting Boston’s Logan Airport particularly hard. A sailboat was even washed ashore at Wollaston Beach in Quincy, Massachusetts, after breaking free from its dock.
In a stranger twist, the pounding waves off Nantucket have re-exposed part of a 19th-century shipwreck, believed to be the schooner Warren Sawyer, which ran aground on the island back in 1884.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service said Sunday evening that the storm was beginning to weaken, though heavy rain and tidal flooding were expected to continue through Monday, particularly from northern New Jersey to southern New England. Nor’easters typically strike later in the year, making this weekend’s storm unusually early and, forecasters say, unusually fierce.
