Hurricane Debby remnants cause major airport delays as NYC braces for heavy rain, high wind

NEW YORK — Delays were building at major New York-area airports Friday as remnants of Hurricane Debby were expected to bring heavy rain and high winds to the city by afternoon.

Dozens of arriving and departing flights were canceled or delayed at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports by 2 p.m., flight tracker FlightAware reported. More than 60 flights from LaGuardia were canceled while another 200 were delayed, the site said. More than 200 flights into the airport were delayed.

JFK and Newark were both experiencing delays for one-fifth of departing and arriving flights, with at least 65 flights out of JFK canceled, FlightAware said.

New Yorkers were bracing for dangerous travel conditions Friday afternoon into the evening as Debby — now classified as a post-tropical depression — makes its way north.

The National Weather Service predicted rainfall of up to 2 inches per hour for the New York metro area — a rate that could overwhelm the city’s storm sewer system and lead to flooding in streets and subway tunnels.

A tornado watch was issued for several states including parts of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The NWS said more than 26 million people could be affected by possible twisters until at least 2 p.m.

Wind gusts could reach up to 60 mph in the city and Long Island throughout the day, weather officials said. The MTA on Friday said tandem trucks and empty tractor trailers would be banned from the agency’s bridges as of 3 p.m. in anticipation of high winds.

In the city, MTA crews began mobilizing portable pump units this week in anticipation of the storm, and have inspected the system’s 286 stationary pumps to make sure they’re up to the task of clearing any storm water.

“My teams, we’ve inspected known flood locations to make sure that the track drains are clear, there’s no debris, make sure that the pumps are operating,” said Armando Crespo, NYC Transit’s head of infrastructure.

“We checked our emergency equipment to make sure that it’s working properly, the pump trains are at the yards to make sure that they’re manned and ready,” Crespo added.

He said his teams had also started covering sidewalk vents in known flood locations.

Subway travel in Brooklyn was briefly waylaid when a tree fell onto the tracks of the N train near the Eighth Ave. Station in Sunset Park, but it was not immediately clear whether the tree was downed by the storm.

NYC Transit crews had the tracks cleared as of 12:03 p.m.