New York Flooding Washes Away Entire Road in West Point, Video Shows

Biblical rain hammering New York has turned deadly after a woman was killed amid severe flash flooding that has washed away homes and roads.

Neighborhood streets were turned into waterways, as the National Weather Service (NWS) issued an "exceedingly rare" flash flood emergency across parts of the state on Sunday, warning that the deluge could threaten human life.

The force of the raging waters became so powerful in some areas that it carried away anything in its path, with a viral video apparently showing how an entire section of Route 218 was completely destroyed. That part of the highway, which runs along the Hudson River, normally connects West Point to Cornwall in Orange County.

The extreme weather comes just days after Chicago also suffered flooded homes, submerged cars, and burst riverbanks when torrential rain battered the Illinois city. Meanwhile other parts of the country, such as Texas, are suffering from extreme heat. Experts fear that climate change is set to make extreme weather patterns worse, with some researchers believing that more thunderstorms and floods are likely, along with tornadoes, hurricanes and droughts.

A Twitter user with the handle @NsfwWx—described in their profile as a social media forecaster, storm-tracker, and firefighter—tweeted a 12-second clip to their 15,000 followers on Sunday showing flooding in New York. The footage appeared to have been filmed by someone on foot, who walked up a road as fast-moving water washed across the lanes.

After a few steps the road disappeared, and a hole plunged down a steep muddy slope with the road continuing across from the newly-opened ravine. The camera then panned to the right, to show how a waterfall had appeared from above, hammering down from a wooded area and now blasting into the hole where the road once stood. The caption read: "Route 218 from cornwall to West point is gone."

The video had been viewed more than 400,000 times within six hours of it being posted online, and had been shared more than 1,200 times.

The town of Cornwall declared a state of emergency and said all travel would be restricted to emergency vehicles only. Up to 8 inches of rain had fallen in Hudson Valley on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said that some 13,000 homes have been left without power as a result of the storms. She also declared a state of emergency for Orange County, where a woman in her 30s was swept away by rapid waters and drowned as she sought higher ground with her dog, County Executive Steven Neuhaus told AP.

She had tried to escape with her pet when boulders dislodged by floods smashed into her home and destroyed part of a wall. "Her house was completely surrounded by water," he said. "She was trying to get through [the flooding] with her dog, and she was overwhelmed by tidal-wave type waves." The victim's identity has not yet been released.

Newsweek has reached out by email to the Orange County Sheriff's Office in New York for further information about the tragedy and road collapse on Route 218.

Flash flooding warnings were also issued by federal forecasters 60 miles away in parts of New York City, including Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx.