The bodies of five people were found in Elizabeth, NJ, a city spokeswoman said Thursday morning, bringing the death toll in the area from Wednesday’s floods to 15.
The dead, including two men and two women, were found in the Oakwood Plaza apartment complex across from a flooded fire station in Elizabeth, New Jersey’s fourth largest city, said Kelly Martins, city spokeswoman.
Another nine people are known to have died in New York City and one man was found dead in Passaic, NJ after being trapped in a car in rising tides, Mayor Hector C. Lora said.
The New York victims were found in homes in Queens and Brooklyn and were between 2 and 86 years old, police said. Official causes of death will later be determined by the city’s medical examiner, the ministry said.
Three people – a 2-year-old boy, a 48-year-old woman, and a 50-year-old man – were found in a house on 64th Street in Woodside, Queens.
There, Choi Sledge, who lives on the third floor of the house, said she received a desperate call around 9:30 p.m. from a woman who lives in the basement apartment, who she identified as Mingma Sherpa
“She said, ‘The water is just coming in,’ and I say, ‘Get out!’ Go to the third floor! ”Recalled Mrs. Sledge.
“The last thing I hear from you is, ‘The water is coming out of the window.’ And that was it. ”She identified the other two people who died as Ms. Sherpa’s partner, Ang Lama, and her son, who was also named Ang.
Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said eight of the nine people who died in the city were in basement apartments. a common feature of homes in densely packed immigrant neighborhoods in Queens.
Other people who died in New York was an 86-year-old woman in Glendale, Queens.
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Andy Newman, Chelsia Rose Marcius, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Asia Paybarah and Tiffany May contributed to the coverage.
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