>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. and welcome back to cnn's breaking news coverage. from cnn headquarters here in atlanta. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm john vause. two major stories this hour. state of emergency in effect for new york and new jersey as the remnants of hurricane ida brings severe flooding, heavy rain and tornadoes. >> we are also following breaking news from the u.s. supreme court. in a split decision the court refusing to block the strictest abortion law in the country. more from texas in just a moment. but first the latest on what's being called a historic weather event. states of emergency are now in effect in new york and new jersey as the remnants of hurricane ida hammer the u.s.

northeast with record rainfall, flash flooding and tornadoes. >> the first ever flash flood emergency was issued for new york city. it has now been downgraded to a flash flood watch. but the city's subway system is flooded with most lines effectively shut down. a ban is now in place for all non-emergency travel in the city for the next few hours. new york governor kathy hochul says right now the situation remains dire. >> we've engaged our utilities. first of all, we were actually preparing for the hurricane henri last -- two weeks ago. so we were already having the assets in place. so we're not inexperienced in this. but it is always quite shocking when you literally see the streets of new york looking like the river's flowing and people just in shock over what's going on. especially the images of what's happening in the subways. so these are dangerous situations. we want to make sure people stay away from them. so we can take all the precautions in advance. and we did deploy assets to be on the ground in anticipation.

but mother nature will do whatever she wants and she is really angry tonight. we have to be prepared for cleanup tomorrow. i'll be on site in the morning making sure this is going well. but right now we're in a very dire situation. i do want to give you the mta number one more time. i think i misread the number. it's new.mta.info. and in new jersey the national weather service confirmed at least two large and destructive tornadoes. almost all rail service in the state is now suspended due to the extreme weather. so let's begin in new york. shimon prokupecz is there. he joins us now on the phone. shimon, when we spoke with you last hour you were talking about the possibility of at least one train up and running. what's the latest on that? >> reporter: yeah. so i can tell you from what i've seen there's now been two trains that are on the 8th avenue line here in times square. and the 8th avenue line, the a train and the c train are both

running with limited service. so they are running them. they seem to go up to a certain point, and then they can no longer run because there's still a lot of flooding in the subway system. other parts of the subway are still shut down. i'm back at where i've been most of the night in times square on the 7th avenue line. that is still -- remains shut down. there are still people everywhere here at the subway stop, sleeping, laying on the subway platform. some people sitting on stairs. others laying on benches. so there's still a lot of people who it seems still are going to be spending the night here. i was here a couple hours ago and i'm still seeing the same faces that i saw here earlier. i did see some additional track workers working through here, walking through here.

so it seems at least they're trying to inspect the track and make sure there's no damage and then perhaps they'll start moving more trains. but really just unprecedented what's going on here tonight and earlier today with this flooding, with this rain. the mta calling it historic, saying that the system was just inundated with the floodwaters and so they had to shut down the subway system. the other thing they have to do is there were people that were actually stuck in between stations. so they had to run in and rescue these people. as well as many people driving through the streets when the torrential rain started and just kept coming. people thinking they could keep driving through flooded streets and they thought they could drive through them and then they had to be rescued by emergency personnel, fire department, police department, working really -- you know, through the night to try to rescue people,

get people who were stuck inside cars. we're also hearing that some homes were flooded and in some cases people had to be rescued out of those homes. but that was going on. it has stopped raining for the most part here, which is some good news. and now just comes the cleanup and kind of the recovery of getting the city back up and running. just think about it. the subway system is so vital to this city. they've got to get this back up and running. so hopefully in the next few hours they can start getting it back up and people can hopefully go home because it is just horrific. so many of these people who are working all day, these are not people -- a lot of the people who are stranded here are not people who were out partying or hanging out. people coming home from work. they're trying to get home. they worked all day. i saw health care workers, restaurant workers. many of the frontline workers. people we've come to know who were there during the pandemic, at the height of the pandemic, dealing with so much, many of them you look around -- i'm looking around and everyone is just laying here and just

stranded. it's just hard to watch. >> yeah. just having to deal with so much and just reminding our international and our u.s. viewers of course, it is 3:00 a.m. just after 3:00 a.m. 3:05 a.m., in fact. shimon joining us there from new york. many thanks for bringing us up to date on the situation, john. >> from new york city let's go out to brooklyn and cnn's matt varelas is there. what are they going home to? what's the latest on the damage and the flooding in your area? >> reporter: well, good morning. and i can tell you right now what a difference a few hours makes. i mean, behind me right now you'll see one of the major thoroughfares here in brooklyn, the brooklyn queens expressway. pockets of this roadway were filled with flooding, so much so that you had a lot of cars that were stuck in the roadways, that were stuck with flooding. you had nypd vehicles that were going through trying to check up on people. right now there is a traffic ban

in the city where officials are saying they suggest that unless you're an essential vehicle you stay off the roads. most people have done that. you'll see certain pockets where there are cars driving on the roads. as i've been saying, there's been very limited service on the mta. you're seeing some vehicles drive past behind me. this has been a situation where in a couple of hours it will be sunrise and people will be coming out and you're having -- members of the police department, the fdny. it's going to be after action report. and remember, for a few hours in were really dangerous conditions here. there were very dangerous situations where this were ongoing rescue efforts by the nypd. it's going to be a long time to sort of tear apart and take down and decide what it is that happened here. >> again, mark, what you're

saying is that essentially the authorities have the situation pretty much under control. most people are observing that travel ban and they are staying indoors, right? >> reporter: that's right, they are. it helps that this is also in the late hours of the evening. so traditionally you wouldn't have a lot of people that were traveling anyway. however, you had a situation over in queens at the u.s. tennis open. the tennis center had some ongoing matches. you had to get people out of the stadium. so it's been getting them off the stadium, getting them to an off-site location so they can figure out a way to get home, whether it's from livery cab service or some sort of liberty train service, something like that. it's been tough to sort of figure out how to get around with the travel ban. >> just very quickly, is there any indication that the water levels are receding at the

moment? or are they still fully high? because the rain's stopped at least. >> reporter: the rain has stopped and the water levels have receded. you have a little bit of water within -- you drive through, you'll still drive through some -- but it's p anywhere close to where it was during the height of this. you had water coming up to the car window where nypd vehicles merngs services unit had to go in and try to rescue people. there were rescue efforts going on all over the city. you're not seeing that right now. the water levels have really resooelded and you can tell if you drive through certain parse of the roadway because you see a lot of debris from just coffee cups or what have you. and that all came from the rising water levels. >> okay, cnn's mark morales there with the very latest on the situation in brooklyn. we thank you. at least one death from the

storm is confirmed in new jersey. a man whose vehicle was overtaken by flood waters. the governor is urging everyone to stay off the road. it appears they are doing that in many places. officials say rescuers have been pulling people from cars trapped underwater. the storm has also spawned numerous reports of tornadoes across the region including at least one large destructive twister in southern new jersey. and we get more from christie eledo of affiliate wpvi in philadelphia. >> look at that tornado! >> reporter: a dark-clouded funnel touches down bringing traffic to a halt. another angle shows it barreling toward homes and suddenly josephine lane is directly in its path. >> we hear just a little noise. next thing you know we heard everything breaking. >> reporter: the national weather service says an parent twister pummeled gloucester county. troy bonnenberg and his children were in the basement. minutes later the family emerged unharmed. their belongings scattered through third-round pick south

jersey neighborhood. >> you lost part of your roof? >> the whole roof. >> reporter: the neighbors bore the brount of this storm, aluminum siding, roofing, furniture and children's toys piled on top of a family car. the house unlivable. first responders remain on scene along with utility companies who spent the evening going door to door. >> it's horrible. you never expect anything like this to happen in this area. >> my daughter ran out and said get in the house, quick. then we came out and this is what's happening. >> reporter: piles of debris that can be replaced. families fortunate this wasn't worse, now tasked with how to rebuild. >> what do you start to -- right now we're just trying to figure out where we're going to go. plenty of sport. neighbors, friends, family. but what do you do? >> downtown annapolis, maryland. the state capital, home of the u.s. navy academy. also took a direct hit from the tornado as ida rolled through. a section of the main highway into the city was shut down by downed power lines. trees as well as debris. cleanup expected to take about a

day. no injured have been reported but fire officials say some homes were damaged. there was also a gas leak in the area. meteorologist pedram javaheri is with us again for the very latest on the storm. where we're looking here we're seeing the rain easing up in parts but obviously it's now moving further away up to rhode island and massachusetts, right? >> that's right. around new york city, around portion that's have already been very hard hit across new jersey as well conditions beginning to grangly improve. the rain showers tapering off over the last couple of hours. but the energy, essentially the last area across the entire country here going to see what is left of ida, is going to be right across parts of rhode island, connecticut into massachusetts, boston one of the largest cities in line here to see another line of heavy rainfall before it's all said and done. this polygon here that is the tornado watch that is still in effect through 6:00 in the morning local time. this storm has produced at least five tornadoes in the past few hours as we often see moving over a region. the rotation in the atmosphere enough spin in the atmosphere to

produce tornadoes. not too often to see that. but you see into the overnight hours it becomes that much more dangerous as people could be caught off guard. how about this? rainfall amounts as staggering as you'll ever see if. some of these rain amounts may exceed what ends up happening across portions of louisiana, the totals when it's all said and done. but newark, new jersey coming in with the wettest single day in its history there. about 8 h. 8.32 inches. previous report 6.73 inches. new york city's central park 3.15 inches of rainfall in one hour. this event has a recurrence interval or probability of recurring as a 200-year event. you see this take place here and we know just about 12 days ago henri brought in historic rainfall toward new york city. they saw at that point a 1 in a 25-year event that took place there with about 1.9 inches that fell. this shattered the previous record. and records here have been kept since the 19th century. here goes what is left of this system. we expect around 7:00, 8:00 in the morning this will all begin

to taper off and move offshore. that's the good news. notice some 750 until americans still underneath these flood alerts. the flood emergencies they've all been allowed to expire. that is the most rare of flooded products. but rainfall and what is left here still could see at least two to three inches in some of these areas around eastern massachusetts into the cape cod region. so that's what we're going to watch carefully here going into the next few hours. john, we've talked about how this all plays out, and i've mentioned how with every degree warming the atmosphere is able to retain about 10% more water vapor and we've seen temperatures warm at least one degree celsius since preindustrial times. when you see heavy rain events like this to a meteorologist it makes complete sense why it's happening as moisture is much more prevalent because of warmer atmosphere is able to hold more moisture than a colder one. this is what's happening around this region. >> do the math. it all adds up, right? thanks, pedram. it another breaking story we're following this hour, the

u.s. supreme court has refused to block a controversial new abortion law in the state of texas. the decision was 5-4 with chief justice john roberts joining with three liberals. the texas law is almost a total ban, prohibiting abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. up to 90% of all abortions in the state are done after the sixth week. it also allows for anyone in the united states to bring a civil suit against those who help a woman seeking an abortion. joining me now from la jolla, california former u.s. attorney harry littman. he is currently the host of the talking feds podcast. always good to have you with us. >> thanks, rosemary. good to be it here. >> so harry, the supreme court has now formally denied a request to block this controversial texas abortion law. what is your reaction to that move and is there anything women's rights groups can do to fight this? >> right. so first we've said controversial a couple times. you could really say lawless. there's not the slightest doubt

that the law is complete ly irreconcilable with the governing precedent of the land, roe versus wade. so in texas alone this evening pregnant women don't have the same rights as in 49 other states. it was also really remarkable that they would do this. there's procedural reasons that they invoked but i can just say with confidence that the court from when roe was decided in 1973 to 2016 when the newest trump appointees arrived would without doubt have not let this law go into effect. what can women's groups try to do now? possibly a couple things. there's going to be i think a bit of a groundswell to see if there's a federal possible response that at least the democrats could put through.

and it's arguable that there's a way to combat it, but that hasn't been tried before. they will also hope a challenge could still be made by someone who can prove they're being injured, for instance, they're being denied an abortion. but the statute is set up to make it so difficult and exact such penalty not only on women but on providers that right now all the clinics have said we give up, we're closing our shop because otherwise we could be subject to a crime. and that's really a chilling effect that's going to make it hard to challenge this and again put texas completely out beyond the pale of where the law really remains in this country until the supreme court says otherwise. >> and haverry, this is so draconian, that if a young girl

is raped and if incest is involved in any of this, she still is unable to have an abortion. and you say that this is lawless. but the supreme court allows it to stand. so where does that leave the country -- >> there you have it. i think it's be perfectly accurate, it's lawless in the sense that it's completely inconsistent with the law of the land for the reasons you say. also women at six weeks often don't even know they're pregnant. roe and reaffirmed by the later casey case made it clear you may not do this. a state may not do this before viability, which is something like 24 weeks. in that sense it is lawless. it's also kind of cruel or even perverse. because they took the features of this law that make it so difficult for anyone to challenge and use that as an excuse to let it go into effect. as you mentioned, chief justice

roberts, no liberal, joined the three progressive members of the court to say exactly that, this is a situation where the state has maneuvered to keep us from trying to review it. we must have the power and we do have the power now to at least not let it go into effect until we can look at its constitutionality. but the five, you know, ultra conservative members of the court very boldly ignored the chief justice and ram rodded it through. it's a stunning day i think as justice sotomayor said in dissent. >> and harry, do you think there's any possibility because there will be a groundswell over this, do you think that the democrats could push to expand the u.s. supreme court on the basis of this? because it does threaten roe versus waud as you pointed out. >> yeah. so that just, rosemary, invokes

a whole big set of consideration sxiz do think at the end of the day it's tun likely that 50 members of the congress would want to make really fundamental changes to the supreme court. they might try to put in legal remedies and even that would be by a razor-thin margin. i think federal legislation is hard here and what you're going to want to happen is figure oupt a way to get a challenge to this statute. the court didn't say that couldn't happen, just that it can't happen now and then have it decided on the merits. in the meantime, thousands of young women in texas will be deprived of their clear constitutional rights to have previability abortions. >> it has shocked women across the country and indeed across the world. harry litman, thank you so much for your analysis. appreciate it. >> thank you, rosemary. well, still to come, with wildfires forcing thousands from

their homes in california the white house issues an emergency declaration for direct federal assistance. and we'll continue to follow the breaking news of major flooding and extreme weather now battering the northeast of the united states. stay with us. you're watching cnn. this is how you imagine your dishwasher. but it may not be as clean as you think. built up grease and limescale could be hiding in your pipes. try finish dishwasher cleaner its dual action formula hygienically cleans hidden limescale and grease in your dishwasher. finish. clean dishwasher. clean dishes.

well, we are following breaking news out of northeastern united states where the remnants of hurricane ida are bringing torrential rain and flash floods to the area. the governors of new york and new jersey have declared states of meemergencies and there are more than 240,000 homes and businesses without power throughout the region. >> in new jersey flash floods

have killed at least one person who was trapped in their car, and now the severe weather is moving toward new england. on the u.s. west coast the huge caldor fire is now 23% contained. but with better weather in the forecast there are hopes of bringing the blaze under control. strong and gusty winds which have been driving the fire toward the mountain resort area of lake tahoe are expected to ease in the coming hours. but conditions remain bone dry and humidity low. more than 200,000 acres have burned. at least 700 homes and structures destroyed. the tens of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate. >> we raised all eight of our children right here. >> i want to go but i also want to stay. once i leave i know i can't get back in. that's the main thing. >> the white house has approved a request from california for a presidential emergency declaration for direct financial assistance. cnn's stephanie elam is in lake tahoe with late details. >> reporter: i'm standing in the midst of the caldor fire that is

burning in northern california and working its way toward the nevada border. this is echo lake and right now firefighters are using it as a source of water to take up and fight the blazes that we can see here up in the mountainside. one thing that has made this fire very difficult to fight is the fact that so much of the terrain is very rugged. it's very remote. it's out there. also not all of this territory has seen fire. take a listen to the head of cal-fire explain to me how long it's been since some of this area has burned. >> the caldor fire is burning in areas that have no fire history that we have, over 100 years, to areas that have burned within the last 20 years. all of the above. and we're seeing it burn through different vegetation types and age classes that we wouldn't necessarily expect fire to spread through. and that is absolutely drought, climate change, dry fuel conditions that we just haven't seen before. >> reporter: the chief also told me that people did heed those

evacuation warnings around lake tahoe which if you haven't been out here it's a great tourist destination that people come to pretty much year round. during the summer months they come to enjoy the lakes and during the winter they come here to ski. this is really crucial to a lot of people. and he says as of now they've been able to protect lake tahoe. but still, this caldor fire has been devastating, burning more than 200,000 acres and more than 500 residences have been lost. near lake tahoe, i'm stephanie elam, cnn. in other news, texas passing a law that could put roe versus wade at risk. it is a case of the minority in the u.s. making rules for the majority. plus the remnants of hurricane ida cause rainfall new york has never seen before. the latest on the city's rescue efforts amid the floods. we're back in just a moment. it's a simple fact: it even kills the covid-19 virus.

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welcome back, everyone. a travel ban for new york city is in effect for another hour and a half after a night of torrential rain delivered by the remnants of hurricane ida. flooding was so sudden cars were submerged, people were left trapped. new york's mayor said it was a historic weather event. >> flooding forced most of the city's subway lines to close. limited service is returning on some lines. but for many commuters it was a

long night spent at the subway waiting to get home. >> the danger of the rushing water was obvious in front of these stores in new jersey. the governor urged people to stay off the roads and a confirmed tornado raced through south jersey wednesday night moving at 40 miles an hour. the torn rnl rainfall that broke records in new york is moving on from the city heading northeast. but all that water of course had to go somewhere. subway service in the city is extremely limited with emergency crews working to rescue passengers stuck on trains. and we heard from new york's mayor a little earlier, urging everyone to stay indoors. >> i'm very, very worried about what's happening out on the roads. i want to urge everyone get in quickly. do not stay out on the roads, it's dangerous. we're seeing a kind of rainfall we almost never see. this kind of speed with which the rain has come. everyone's got to get to safety. do not be out on the roads if

you have any choice. and the subways also i'm sad to say, the subways are basically out of commission at this point. also not safe to go there. tomorrow do not go into a street, a road, a highway with a lot of water accumulated. that can be super dangerous. >> joining me on the line now from brooklyn, new york is james west. thank you so much for talking with us. >> rosemary, thanks for having me. >> and james, you just flew home to new york city from abroad. what did you think once you realized the city was flooding? how did you get home? >> i was arriving from london at jfk airport, and it's usually a bit crazy getting home. usually about half an hour to 40-minute trip. this time turned into over two hours, maybe 2 1/2 hours to get home straight into the aftermath, the remnants of

hurricane ida. and i don't think i've ever seen anything quite like it. i was here for hurricane sandy in new york city. and your viewers may remember flooded streets, flooded subways. well, tonight in new york city the entire subway system is essentially suspended. the roads everywhere i saw coming out of the airport and beyond flooded. dozens and dozens and dozens of cars marooned. stranded. people trying to work out what to do, get out of their cars. try to walk somewhere in the pouring rain. fortunately, i had a very battle-hardened new yorker uber driver who was committed to getting me home through some very sticky patches. but it was like rivers out there and i saw many, many people in a lot worse condition than i was, thank goodness. >> and james, as you've been speaking with us, we've been looking at these pictures. the images are just

extrao extraordinary, in the subway, on the roads. just amazing. as you say, you've never seen anything like it, certainly not in new york city. so once you got home after two hours, normally a 30-minute trip as you say took you two hours to get home, what did you find? >> well, i'm looking out the window and reviewing some of the photos and videos that i took on my trip home. fortunately, my neck of the woods is totally fine here. a bit windswept and obviously very, very wet. but you know, tomorrow morning when the sun comes up we'll begin to assess the damage. i've been on twitter and social media like you and your viewers just looking at the extraordinary amount of water that's coming into this place. and again, that closest comparison that i have is hurricane sandy, where we were inundated then and this to me just my experience tonight and

this is what i experienced then, it's up there with one of the bigger major weather events that i've seen in this city. >> yeah. totally understand that. james west, thank you so much for talking with us. and we're glad you got safely home. >> yeah, i've got to dry my hair now, i think. >> there you go. thank you so much, james. bye-bye. the other breaking news on cnn, the u.s. supreme court will not block the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country. texas has now enacted a near total ban prohibiting abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, before most women even know they're pregnant. cnn's supreme court reporter ariane deberg has this story. >> reporter: the supreme court is declining to block texas abortion law. in fact, the court has just issued this order formally denying a request from texas abortion providers to freeze this state law that bars abortion after six weeks. and what's critical here is the

vote on this midnight order. chief justice john roberts here has joined the liberals in dissent. remember, this texas law is one of the strictest in the nation. it bars abortion before many people know they are pregnant. now it's going to remain on the books. and what was interesting and unique about this law is that it allows private citizens to bring civil suits against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking abortion in violation of the ban. no other six-week ban has been allowed to go into effect. and let me just read to you from the dissent. and this part there were several dissents but this one is written by justice sonia sotomayor, joined by justice stephen breyer and justice kagan. they write, "the court's order is stunning presented with an application to enjoin an

unconstitutional law designed to evade judicial scrutiny. a majority of justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand." and then it makes note that last night the supreme court effectively did not rule in time to meet a deadline, so the law did go into effect last night simply because the court hadn't ruled on this emergency application from clinics. so sotomayor goes on to say, "last night the court silently acquiesced in the state's enactment of a lou that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedent. today the court belatedly explains that it declined to grant relief because of procedural complexities of the state's own invention." so we're still reading through it. but this is a very strong dissent from the liberals here. >> thanks to cnn's ariane de vogue for that report from

washington. u.s. president joe biden called the law a blatant violation of women's constitutional rights. we'll take a short break. when we come back we'll have more from new york and the reports we're getting now of fatalities caused by the rising flood waters. more in a moment.

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welcome back, everyone. more now on the breaking news in the northeastern u.s. the governors of new york and new jersey have declared states

of emergency because of massive flooding from the remnants of hurricane ida. now, this is the baggage area at the airport in newark, new jersey. there was also flooding in airport terminals. at one point the airport shut down all flights. but officials say they have resumed limited operations there. newark had a record eight inches of rain on wednesday. we're also learning more about the number of fatalities as the result of this storm. let's bring in new york city -- shimon prokupecz is there. he's on the phone. what details do you know about how many people have been killed? because we know there have been fatalities in other places like new jersey as well but what are you hearing about new york city? >> reporter: yeah, just really some tragic news. we're just getting from the nypd that four people died because of the flooding. we're being told that it's a woman in her 40s and a man in his 20s. they were in queens. and then there's an additional

woman in her 40s also in queens. and then a man in his 60s in brooklyn who died. so that's four deaths due to the flooding. and there was also an additional death out of queens where a building partially collapsed, killing someone. so right now five deaths total in new york city. the nyfd saying on the people who died in their homes they all called for help. you know, we've been talking about this all night. people calling for help whether they were at home, whether they were in their cars, and these individuals, they died in their homes. the nypd finding them after going there trying to help them because of the rising water that got into their homes. and sadly they could not rescue them. and so they have died. so some really tragic news here out of new york city where really this torrential rain, this storm that just inundated and hit new york city has really

turned deadly here. >> i guess the question is, shimon, one of the concerns that the deaths we're talking about here in new york city is just the beginning, that there will be many others in similar situations that will be discovered as the water recedes and people are checked on. >> correct. certainly in vehicles. right now it seems like some of -- a lot of the water in certain areas has receded. so perhaps this is how in some instances the authorities, police are finding these people. what's happening is in the outer boroughs, in places like brooklyn, places like queens, the bronx, and staten island got really, really hit hard. many people home, right? watching tv, whatever it is. maybe sleeping even. as the storm came in. it came in so fast people were really not prepared for it. everyone heard it's going to rain. but you can really tell this city was not preparing for

something so serious. and despite the warnings about flash floods and some of what was to come, you know, no one here really took it seriously. and so it's just taken a really tragic turn. and yeah, i mean, look, there's always the possibility they could find more as they get into these neighborhoods and communities and the water starts to recede. you know, and cars. that's the other thing. there are so many cars just stranded across the city. right now. and maybe that's where they'll find more bodies. hopefully not obviously. but it's just a very tragic turn here. and something this city is now going to have to deal with for quite some time. >> yeah. i guess the question is were these people alone, were they found together and all these details we'll find out sadly in the coming hours. for now shimon, thank you for that reporting. shimon prokupecz on the line in new york. >> that is tragic news. and we will of course continue to follow this breaking news. do stay with us here on cnn.

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state -- stay-at-home order until 5:00 a.m. and of course we talk about five -- four deaths, maybe five. our reporter shimon was suggesting that was possible. that number will most likely go up. >> there are people who called for help, they wanted to be rescued, trapped reportedly in a basement. a man in his 20s and a woman in her 40s at one address in queens. another woman in her 40s also at a separate address in queens. and then there's a 60-year-old man in brooklyn. also separate addresses. two at one address, the others separate. they may have been alone at the time, we don't know but they're clearly calling for help and this is the sort of thing they're dealing with right now, these rising waters. and now they say it's starting to recede. but at the time it has been horrendous for a lot of people. >> it took people by surprise. it came in so fast. thank you so much for joining us. i'm rosemary church. >> kim brunhilder will continue our coverage in just a moment. i'm john vause.

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welcome to all of you watching us here in the united states and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. we begin with breaking news this hour, deadly record-breaking rainfall and flooding is battering parts of the u.s. nort northeast as remnants of hurricane ida move through the region. both new york and new jersey are under a state of emergency. more than 240,000 power outages have been reported across the region and new york city has issued a travel ban until 5:00 a.m. local time. the city's mayor is warning