This Cinco de Mayo was a wet one.
A downpour Friday afternoon flooded the West Side Highway, snarled PATH trains and caused long delays and cancellations at airports.
The West Side Highway was forced to close in both directions for 10 blocks between 24th Street and 34th Street about 2 p.m. due to flooding, officials with the City Office of Emergency Management said. The highway wasn’t fully reopened until about 4:45 p.m., a spokesman said.
Though rain and high winds impacted many flights across all New York airports, the hardest hit was La Guardia, where more than 34 percent of departing flights were delayed and 14 percent were canceled, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks air travel.
The PATH rail suspended service on two lines Friday, citing a power problem. Service was restored around 5:20 p.m.
The storm also caused leaks in the roof of the Oculus hub at the World Trade Center, scattering hundreds of travelers, a photo posted on Twitter showed.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the Oculus transportation hub, could not immediately confirm the leak.
The NWS warned that flooding could occur in any “poor drainage and low lying areas” in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.
The downpour also resulted in a partial closure of the main entrance at Penn Station Friday afternoon. The NYPD wrapped caution tape around half the stairwell at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street just before 1:15 p.m. The entrance was fully reopened by 3:30 p.m.
A request for comment from Amtrak, which runs operations at Penn Station, was not immediately returned.
Over an inch of rain had fallen in Central Park by noon on Friday and another inch is predicted to fall by the end of the day, the NWS said.
There is a 60 percent chance of rain on Saturday, and a 30 percent chance on Sunday.
With Reuters
