Punishing Rains, Flooding Expected Across Northeast

The northeast is bracing itself for flooding today ahead of powerful thunderstorms expected to bring torrential rains and high winds to a region already soggy from the last blow.

The tropical-like downpour will unleash more than 3 inches of rain along the East Coast within the next 24 hours. That could cause rivers in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York -- still saturated from Sunday's storm -- to flood.

A pedestrian shields herself from the weather with an umbrella during a rainstorm in Philadelphia, Thursday, March 10.

Matt Rourke, AP

A pedestrian shields herself from a rainstorm in Philadelphia on Thursday.

The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings along the eastern seaboard from Washington, D.C., to Boston, where the heaviest rain is expected to begin tonight and continue all day Friday and finally peter out early Saturday. Temperatures of around 50 degrees could cause snow melt and make the flooding even worse.

"What makes it more problematic for us is it's a back-to-back event," Rob Shedd, senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service's Northeast River Forecast Center, told AOL News by phone today. "The first storm can cause some problems, but you get two storms sitting on top of each other and it can cause significant flooding. That's what we're seeing here."

On Sunday, a massive storm dumped nearly a foot of snow on upstate New York, swelled rivers and left thousands without power across the northeast.

The potential for flooding in New York City and the surrounding suburbs could be especially great, because of overflow in the Hudson River basin. New York City subway officials said today they were double-checking the system's drains and pumps to make sure everything was in working order, but were prepared for the rain. Torrential rains flooded the system in 2004 and 2007.

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In New Jersey, which already saw flooding Sunday, experts were particularly concerned about the potential for more flooding along the the Passaic River. And farther north, the storm is expected to deliver a wintry mix of ice, sleet and snow, and could dump up to 8 inches of snow in the Adirondacks.

The wild weather wasn't limited to the northeast, either. The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings today in more than 30 states, including Ohio and Kentucky, where the Ohio River has already surged over its banks and is only expected to rise further as the rains continue. And high winds across the south were expected to continue today, just days after a series of small tornadoes touched down in Louisiana and Alabama. According to The Associated Press, at least one home was destroyed.