Editor’s note: this story originally said children were picnicking nearby the scene of the rescue. The family reached out to Nexstar’s WPIX to say the young children actually set up a stand to greet rescued families and provide them with water.
CRANFORD, N.J. (WPIX) — Crews rescued people from a flooded home in Cranford Thursday, a day after Tropical Storm Ida flooded several cities in the northeast.
On Thursday, crews could be seen navigating a raft up to a flooded home in Cranford, N.J. Four people then made their way out of the home and onto the raft. The bottom half of the multistory home appeared to be completely under water.
The crew brought those rescued to dry land, where children ages 3-8 greeted them and provided water, according to parents.
Wednesday’s storm took much of the tri-state area by surprise. Roadways and public transit in New Jersey and New York flooded, and more than a dozen people died between the two states.
At least 12 people died in New York City, police said, one of them in a car and eight in flooded basement apartments that often serve as relatively affordable homes in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets.
Officials said at least eight died in New Jersey and three in Pennsylvania’s suburban Montgomery County; one was killed by a falling tree, one drowned in a car and another in a home.
An on-duty state trooper in Connecticut was swept away in his cruiser and later taken to a hospital, state police and local authorities said.
Many local officials spoke of climate change when commenting on the crisis Thursday, and asked for federal aid – which President Joe Biden has promised to deliver.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.