More than 45 dead after Ida’s remnants blindside Northeast

A stunned U.S. East Coast is facing a sobering death toll, surging rivers, tornado damage and continuing calls for rescue after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain.

At least 46 deaths have been linked to flooding from Maryland to New York from the storm’s strike Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Officials said at least 13 people died in New York City and three in suburban Westchester County. Authorities said at least 23 died in New Jersey and at least five died in Pennsylvania. In Connecticut, a state trooper died after his cruiser was swept away. Another death was reported in Maryland.

Police said they found the bodies of three of the people around noon in a flooded basement near Kissena Park in Queens. The chief of the NYPD’s community affairs bureau, Jeffrey Maddrey, said officers were going to door-to-door searching for people trapped or killed.

Two women and a man were found dead Thursday morning in a basement apartment in another section of Queens.

Experts say the remnants of Hurricane Ida merged with a non-tropical storm, causing record rain to fall. The storm dumped more than 9 inches of rain in parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.