Threat of flooding lingers after storm kills one person, triggers power outages in New York

Herkimer County, New York, remains under a flash flood warning until Monday afternoon as flooding from a possible dam failure continues to flood the southern portion of the county.

Around noon on Saturday, Nov. 2, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch through Monday afternoon for southern Herkimer County, southern Fulton County and Montgomery County due to a potential dam failure condition on the West Canada Creek below the Brookfield Trenton Falls Dam.

The NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service recorded water levels of West Canada Creek at Kast Bridge at 10.94 feet on Thursday, surpassing the record of 10.5 feet.

The recorded water level dropped before rising again to meet the previous record on Friday. The water levels have been decreasing through Saturday.

The torrential rainfall in the northeast at the start of the weekend had left at least one person dead, led to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declaring 12 counties in New York under a state of emergency on Friday amid flooding.

Flooding from the Halloween storm continued to impact Herkimer County, New York, on November 2. (Twitter/@NYSDOT)

In the town of Norway, in Herkimer County, New York, 82-year-old Father John Connery had been driving through the floodwaters of the overflowed Factory Brook on Thursday night, Syracuse News said. Troopers told the news station that the shoulder of the road had collapsed, trapping the car on its side and the passenger side in the new chasm.

Connery had exited his car, a witness told the news station, and had attempted to walk across the floodwaters when he fell and was unable to fight against the strong current. The New York State Police Underwater Recovery Team recovered his body on Friday morning. Herkimer County was among the 12 counties that declared a state of emergency.

"From just after 7 p.m. Thursday evening through around 2 a.m. that night, the rainfall was heavy [in southern Herkimer County]," AccuWeather Meteorologist Derek Witt said. "Visibility was reduced as a result of the downpours, which would have made driving hazardous. In addition, that would have made it difficult for drivers to identify flooded roadways."

The heavy rains in the area had also caused several water rescues in Utica, New Hartford and Chadwicks, according to Utica News.

"Overall, a widespread 2 to 4 inches of rain fell across Herkimer County, much of it during the evening hours of Thursday," Witt said. "Rainfall rates exceeded 1 inch per hour at times. This caused small creeks and streams to swell quickly, overflowing their banks and covering roadways in places."

The Halloween storm damaged buildings and roads in Herkimer County, New York. (Twitter/@NYSDOT)

This October has been the second wettest October for Glens Falls, New York, and the ninth wettest October for Albany, New York. Most locations across eastern New York received between 2 to 6 or more inches above normal in rainfall this month. Herkimer County received between 4 and 8 inches more than normal, according to the National Weather Service. The southern portion of the county averages 3 to 4 inches rainfall in October. This month, however, they received 8 to 10 inches of rain.

On Friday morning in Ohio, New York, Kim Tranter captured on video a swollen stream rushing through the rubble of a collapsed bridge on Gray-Wilmurt Road.

"My husband tried to head to work around 2 a.m., only to return home because all three of our routes were underwater," Tranter told Storyful.