Rhode Island roadway collapses during heavy flooding from Ida

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (WPRI) — Large sections of a Portsmouth roadway collapsed Thursday morning amid the downpours and flooding from the remnants of Ida.

The force of the floodwaters gushing underneath caused the pavement under Fairview Lane to crumble, opening up large holes in the roadway and damaging some vehicles.

“This is crazy,” said John MacIntyre, who lives in the area. “I mean, talking to all the police officers and others, they’ve never really seen anything like this here in Portsmouth.”

No injuries have been reported.

Police say the effort at this time is to fill in the road with stones to create a makeshift road, and the long-term plan is to create new infrastructure for a new road.

The town saw roughly 7 inches of rain from late Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

Residents all up and down the Eastern Seaboard are counting the cost Thursday after the remnants of Hurricane Ida moved into the Northeast U.S. Wednesday, dumping torrential rain and spawning tornadoes. At least nine people were reported dead in New York and New Jersey, including a 2-year-old boy.

New York’s Central Park recorded 3.15 inches of rain in an hour, shattering a record set by Tropical Storm Henri on Aug. 21 of this year.

The National Weather Service office in New York declared its first-ever set of flash flood emergencies in the region Wednesday night, an alert level that is reserved for “exceedingly rare situations when a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage from a flash flood is happening or will happen soon.”

Residents are continuing to be rescued and damage assessed across the Northeast.